Okay here’s a little prequel giving some of the past events and history of some of our friendly little aliens that live in Enchanted Valley

And a special shout out for Jerri for her awesome editing powers!

July 3rd 1947

Completing their sweep of the largest continent on the planet’s northern hemisphere, the squat disk shaped craft crossed the small sea toward the second largest continent on the planet. “Program the ship for the most economical sweep of the landmass and continue monitoring our stealth equipment. These creatures may be backwards but they do have craft that are capable of atmospheric flight.”

“Sir, the archives show that their weaponry is far below anything that could cause any issues for our ship,” One of the other two short gray aliens spoke without turning away from the instruments it was monitoring.

“True, but their radio waves have been noticed by the council of five and we do not want any signals to be received about an unknown ship fitting the description of ours reaching the council. We must find the lost unit without the council finding out anything about that unit. It’s the only way our empire will ever be free of the council and their rules.”

The small alien ship had crisscrossed the northern continent several times, working a pattern from west to east and back beginning at the northern icy regions and working south as the crew watched the instrumentation for the treasure they sought. As it passed over the city of Phoenix, the crew had to pay special attention to the aircraft arriving and landing at the busy terrestrial airport located there, actually lowering their altitude to 18,000 feet to keep below the aircraft arriving and leaving and above those in the holding pattern. Crossing over the border into New Mexico the skies were clear at the lower elevation with the exception of one small aircraft, their instruments detected that appeared to be on a straight course from El Paso to Amarillo.

While it looked like their paths would intersect, the small aircraft was several thousand feet above their own altitude, made no signs of seeing them and instruments showed it had no signs of weapons. The crew kept monitoring the smaller aircraft but were unworried about it. At ten miles away the small aircraft began losing altitude and sharply increased airspeed on their instruments.

“Sir, the small aircraft, its changed altitude and speed,” One of the gray bodied aliens turned from its console.

Turning toward the alien, “Did we lose stealth?”

The alien turned back to its console, “No sir… SIR IT'S POWERING UP A PARTICLE CANNON!”

“Evasive, get us out of atmosphere NOW!”

The disk shape craft began to rise at an incredible speed, taking it right through the invisible beam of the weapon concealed in the nose of the 1939 Grumman G-21. The disk immediately became visible two the two men in the twin engine amphibious aircraft as a bright beam of light burst forth from both the top and bottom of the craft, its ascent quickly slowed before it began to descend, increasing speed as it wobbled back toward earth.

“This is impossible!” the commander of the alien ship shouted as everything within their ship went dark, “These creatures do not have the technology.”

“Could the one in that aircraft be part of the lost unit?” The third alien asked. He would receive no answer as no sooner as he posed the question the ship contacted the hard ground.

As the small twin engine aircraft turned back toward the southwest the pilot looked over at the younger man sitting in the cockpit beside him, “Did you really have to shoot it twice?”

The younger man, possibly no more than twenty by his appearance, grinned over at the older man, “Aw come on, it’s not like I get to fire this baby all that much. Anyway, there is no way in hell I was taking the chance of them surviving and trying to take us back.”

The older man nodded, “Yeah now that we have tasted freedom, there is no way I would go back to that slavery either. I’m sure your mom thinks the same way.”

Noticing that the older man was guiding the aircraft into higher altitude, “We’re not going to land?”

Shaking his head the older man spoke, “Going to be light soon and I don’t want us or the goose seen around the crash.”

“What about the stuff onboard the ship? We can’t let the Army start playing with some of that stuff, who knows what they might find and turn on!”

“Catching us both with an armload of equipment would be even worse.” The older man reasoned, “Their medical science isn’t good enough to tell us apart from them yet, but if they locked us up long enough they would eventually see that we aren’t like them. No best thing we can do is go home and wait for the Army to come clean everything up for us, then once they have it all nice and hidden in some place they don’t think anyone will find, we slip in and remove the dangerous stuff.”

September 12, 1951
Underground facility, Groom Lake, NV

Dr. Henry Kuehn sat in the metal stool with both elbows up on the stainless steel table. His chin resting in both hands as he stared at the strange kite shaped object on the table. His bloodshot eyes, unkempt hair and three day growth of stubble on his face told of the hours he had exhausted trying to determine what the object could be. One side of the object was very smooth and slightly convex, while the other side held a complex concave shape that he and other scientist had determined fit perfectly with the alien’s back that they recovered at the crash site. Although the obvious placement of the object wasn’t the question, the question was what purpose it served.

Running one of the objects through both an X-ray machine and a fluoroscope had only proven the object was made out of a material that was completely invisible to those tests, not impenetrable as the scientists thought would happen but actually not showing up at all, as if the object wasn’t even there. While this was the opposite of what Dr. Kuehn and his colleagues had expected, especially after every means they had tried to cut into one of the objects had failed to even scratch the surface, it did inform them that whatever material the objects were made of did not exist on the periodic table.

Turning toward the sound of the door to his lab opening, Dr Kuehn sighed at the sight of the dark suited man wearing sunglasses that entered. “I’m sorry Mr. Smith, I don’t have anything further to report. Nothing we have tried has given us any clue as to what the devices are used for.”

“That’s quite understandable given the nature of the device, Dr. Kuehn,” Mr. Smith’s face was as expressionless as his monotone voice. “We have decided that the only way to process with testing is to have a volunteer put the device on.”

“Volunteer?” Dr. Kuehn gasped, “Are you mad? We don’t have any idea what the object will do to a human. Who in their right mind would volunteer to do something like that!”

“Leave that to us Doctor, Mr. Jones is currently in the process of interviewing candidates. He should have a suitable volunteer within a few days. While he is doing that I suggest you get some sleep, you look like hell.” Looking over at one of the soldiers standing on each side of the door he had entered, Mr. Smith saw the three chevrons with a single rocker underneath on the sleeve of the soldier carrying a M1928 submachine gun while the other soldier carrying an M2 carbine only had the three chevrons of a Sargent. Thinking about their choice of weapons Mr. Smith called to the lower ranked soldier, “Sergeant, please escort the doctor to his quarters and make sure he isn’t disturbed so that he may get some rest.”

The Sergeant snapped the M2 carbine up as he stood at attention, “Yes, sir!”

“What’s your name son?” Mr. Smith asked the Sergeant.

“Brown, sir,” the Sergeant replied.

“Alright, Sargent Brown, I’m reassigning you to the doctor. You’re his shadow from here on out. Got it?”

“Sir, yes, sir!”

September 17, 1951
Underground facility, Groom Lake, NV

Dr. Kuehn looked down at the man lying face down on the table in front of him shirtless. The lack of a tan around the edges of what looked to be a fresh crew cut haircut and the back of the man’s neck led the doctor to believe this man normally kept his hair much longer. If that wasn’t enough to give the doctor the idea that something was wrong with the situation, the terribly done tattoos told the doctor all he needed to know about the volunteer Mr. Smith and his colleague had provided. The way his legs arms and waist were strapped down in leather restraints made the Doctor wonder if he had in fact volunteered or been forced.

Looking up at the other men in the room with him. Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones stood with their usual emotionless expressions on each side of General Collins, “These are prison tattoos!” Dr. Kuehn stated, mainly toward the general.

“Who gives a fuck where I was!” The man on the table turned his head so he could shout at the doctor, “I volunteered! That’s all you need to know, I let you put the thingamajig on my back I get out of the slammer!”

“We don’t know what this will do to you,” The doctor argued. “For all we know it could kill you.”

“Doc, I haven’t had any for going on five years now. It’ll be another twenty five before I get the chance to play back seat bingo.” The convict reasoned, “So the way I see it, twenty five years without is pretty bad, getting out so old that most good looking dollies won’t have anything to do with me is even worse, so I may as well die now.”

“You heard the man, doctor,” Mr. Smith softly spoke, “He knows the risks.”

“But you’re talking about releasing a convicted felon back onto the street!”

“If he survives the object and the tests afterward, yes,” the side of Mr. Smith’s lip curled upward in a way that made the doctor cringe, knowing that Mr. Smith did not plan on this man leaving the base alive.

“Doctor, if you will be so good as to begin,” the General spoke.

With a heavy sigh the doctor turned toward a stainless steel table along the wall behind him where the three identical objects sat. Picking up the closest one by the edges, the doctor brought it over and positioned in over the man’s back before lowering it down and letting go. Almost a full minute passed with no change when suddenly the surface of the hard kite shaped object seemed to melt conforming to the man’s back.

“Oh man, that feels fucking great!” the man moaned, “fuck, that feels good.”

The rest watched as the top and bottom tips of the object began to ooze upward and down slowly covering his spine. The top stopping at the base of his skull while the bottom found its way under the waistband of the trousers the man wore. “Shit, doc, this is better than fucking sex! And I thought nothing was better than sex.” The man moaned and squirmed against the restraints as the object continued whatever it was doing.

“Ummfff!” the man suddenly jerked. “Ugggh! Oh crap! Shit!” the man groaned through gritted teeth, “Get it off! Get it off!” As he began to thrash around as his uncomfortable grunts and groans became screams of pain. His screaming continued as the off gray colored object began to change color, matching his skin tone as it appeared to be absorbed into his body. HIs body began to shake and convulse so violently that he began to rip the leather restraints away from the table finally ending up in the fetal position in the floor beside the table he had been laying on.

They could do nothing but watch as the now unconscious man’s body began to change before their eyes. His waist thinning incredibly fast, the tattoos on his back and arms disappeared. The muscles in his arms, back and chest took on definition that could only be described as what someone would expect to see in a Mr. Universe competition, while his facial features reformed giving him a very handsome look.

September 20, 1951
Enchanted Valley, WA

“Taking off on us already, Cliff?”

Cliff handed the box off to someone inside the rear hatch of the Grumman amphibious plane before turning to the older man walking under the wing toward him. Spotting the air force cap on the man’s head Cliff went to military attention while saluting the man. “I see you still got that old hat, Captain Jack,” Cliff grinned.

“Well had to have somethin’ fer a souvenir, since some jackass lieutenant got my damn plane,” Jack laughed as he walked over placing his hand along the fuselage. “Still hard to believe you were actually able to put the old girl back together.”

“You could say I have an affinity for machinery,” Cliff chuckled.

“Yeah, I guess you do at that,” Jack nodded. “People here in town told me all about your kind. Most of ‘em don’t trust you three cause what you are. But me and you, we flew together during the war… Hell Cliff you saved my life. Even though in doing so you made me something like you with those tiny machines they tell me are in my blood now.”

“If there had been any other way…” Cliff sighed.

Jack placed his hand on Cliff’s shoulder, “I know, you didn’t have any other choice.” Nodding toward the plane, “So you leaving us?”

Cliff shook his head, “Just a little sightseeing trip. Found out about some place called Homey Airport. Funny thing is this airport is located in the middle of a no fly zone in Nevada.”

“You think that they may have the Fruell ship there?”

“The air force made a huge deal out of transporting something to Wright Patterson, we found nothing there so that was decoy. So they have to have it somewhere else probably closer to the original crash site since there were no other large convoys going cross country at the time. It could be this place, if not then I cross it off and keep looking. Either way I’ve got to check, it’s my responsibility, I shot it down.” Cliff sighed, “I know the ship's systems are fried, made sure of that when we took it down, but the particle beam would not have affected any item or system that was not powered on and who knows what they may have had onboard. They figure out how to activate any of those…”

“Ya think there could be anything left that was dangerous?”

Cliff held both his arms out, “They’re the ones that made me and my kind.”

Jack thought back to the day they were shot down so many years ago. The day he had learned the truth about his friend.

July 23, 1943
Solomon Islands

Jack and Cliff had spent most the war running supplies out of Port Moresby to the coast watchers stationed in the Solomon Islands. Usually flying low level fights at night to keep from being spotted by the Japanese. That fateful night they had been spotted by a Japanese convoy. Before they could get out of range of the Japanese naval guns a shell exploded off their port side, ripping the engine apart along with embedding several pieces of shrapnel into Jack sitting in the pilot’s seat. Cliff had managed to bring the plane down, beaching it on a nearby island. That morning was the day Jack found out that his copilot wasn’t human.

As if being shot down wasn’t bad enough, they had apparently crashed on a Japanese held island. Jack found himself in a small cave, his left arm, leg and side bandaged. It hurt to breathe deeply and from the blood he was coughing up, Jack knew he was in bad shape. Looking over he could see Cliff sitting cross legged on the cave floor nearby, “How bad?” Jack managed to get out before coughing up more blood.

Cliff crawled over to Jack, kneeling beside him, “Pretty bad buddy. It looks like you took some shrapnel that went through a lung and got your liver too. Looks like we managed to crash on one of the Nip’s islands and they’re looking for us.”

“Leave me and get yer ass outta here!” Jack covered his mouth, coughing up more blood.

“Jack you’ve been like a brother to me, I’m not leaving you.”

Holding out his hand to show Cliff the bright red blood he had coughed up, “I’m not gonna to make it and I’m not gonna have you sit around and get caught by the nips while you watch me die.”

“I’m not going to let you die Jack.”

“Unless you got a miracle in yer pocket, I don’t think there’s a lot you can do about it.”

“Jack, I got that miracle but it’s something you can’t ever tell anyone about. Anyone ever finds out about this they would hunt us down and lock us up in some government lab as guinea pigs.”

“Whatever ya tell me I’ll be taking to my grave, which I don’t think will be too much longer.”

“Jack I have microscopic machines in my blood.” Cliff reached over to the small first aid kit, picking up the empty morphine syringe he had earlier injected into Jack, “They’re like tiny repair robots, if I inject some into you they should be able to heal you.”

Jack began to laugh which immediately turned into a coughing fit, “Dammit man I’m not stupid, no one can make machines that small. Next thing you’ll be saying is your one of those little green Martians.”

“Close, but it was little gray men are the ones that made the microscopic robots. And they’re from a lot further away than Mars.”

“Sounds like some of that shit you’d read in one of those Yellow papers,” Jack snarked. “But any chance is better than no chance, do what ya got to do.”

Cliff nodded, sticking the syringe into his own arm drawing some of his own blood into the syringe. “I do this, you’ll always have these running around your system making repairs forever.”

“You make it sound like I’ll live forever.”

“Forever is a damn long time buddy.” Cliff grimaced as he jabbed the needle into Jack’s abdomen, “It won’t make you bullet proof either, you can still get yourself killed.”

Looking down at the now empty syringe as Cliff pulled it out Jack joked, “I guess this sort of makes us blood brothers.”

“Yeah, and it’s a good idea not to let doctors take any blood samples from here on out.” Cliff explained, “They may not have the technology to see the machines in your blood, but who knows what they can do in fifty or a hundred years from now.”

September 20, 1951
Enchanted Valley, WA

“I’m going with ya,” Jack grinned over at his friend. “Someone’s gotta keep you out of trouble.”

Cliff shook his head, “Sorry Jack, you might heal fast but you don’t have any of our other abilities.”

“Way I figure, you need a pilot.” Jack’s grin widened, “I’m guessing nearest airport is Las Vegas. How far away from the no fly zone is that?”

“Fifty, maybe seventy five miles to Homey airport.”

“So we skirt along the edge of the no fly zone, you parachute out while I fly on down to Las Vegas where I keep the engines warms just in case,” Jack explained his idea. “That way we can plan for alternate pick-ups in case you find the need to exist the area from another direction.”

“Actually that’s not a bad idea.”

“Yeah, I’ve been known to have one once in a great while,” Jack chuckled.

October 5, 1951
Underground facility, Groom Lake, NV

“Look guys,” The now ex-convict test subject swung his legs up and around so he sat facing the opposite direction on the examination table, “I’m not asking to be let go, even though that was the deal you made, I just want a weekend to myself, you know how it is right?”

“Mr. Tucker, our agreement was that you were released after the testing was completed.” Mr. Jones pointed out, “As you can see the doctor is still in the process of determining everything the object did to you and how it was able to do that.”

“Try to shaft me and I’ll gonna go ape on your ass Mr. Jones.” John Tucker knew he now had the strength and speed to back up his threats, “That goes for you too Smith, if those are even your real names.”

“Mr. Tucker,” Mr. Smith tightened his lips into a thin line, “Your ‘Deal’ was that you are released when the testing is complete. This is non-negotiable.”

“Well I’m making it negotiable!” John stood up from the examination table. “I haven’t see the god damned sunlight since I got here. I’m finding a way to the nearest town. I’m going to get some booze and a babe this weekend if I have to hitchhike my fucking way there! And I’ll step on anyone that gets in my way!”

Smith’s right hand shot up and inside the dark jacket he always wore going for his gun, Jones was a bit slower but was reaching for his also. Smith’s hand came out of his jacket wrapped around the handle of his snub nose .38. Before he could begin to train it on John, John rushed to Smith’s side, grabbing his wrist and twisting himself and Smith’s arm around. The handle of Jones’ M1911 was just visible as Smith’s gun was pointed at Jones’ head and John forced Smith to pull the trigger.

Reaching up with his left hand, Smith gouged his fingers at John’s eyes causing John to let go of his gun hand, “Sergeant get the doctor out of here now!” Smith shouted at sergeant Brown before adding, “And sound the alarm.”

“Come on Doc!” sergeant Brown grabbed Doctor Kuehn by the arm.

“No, no wait!” Dr. Kuehn pulled free of sergeant Brown before scooping up the other two alien objects, that were identical to the one that changed Tucker, from where they were laying on a table near the wall.

“HEY! Where you going with those!” John picked up a chair to throw at the same time as Mr. Smith fired his revolver hitting John in the shoulder as he tried to throw the chair, causing the chair to miss both Dr. Kuehn and the sergeant.

The chair slamming against the wall right above Dr. Kuehn’s head caused him to fumble and drop one of the objects as sergeant Brown pulled him out of the room. “The artifact,” the doctor tried to protest as Brown pulled him down the hall.

“Is no good to you if you’re dead, now move!” No sooner than he had finished the sentence Mr. Smith’s body came flying out into the hallway, slamming against the wall before slumping down to the ground unmoving.

John stepped out in the hall carrying Jones’ .45 in one hand and the alien object the Doctor had dropped, spotting Brown and the doctor at the far end of the hall, “All I want is the alien device doc, drop it and I’ll let the two of you live!”

Pulling Dr. Kuehn around the corner to the right, Brown stopped before leveling his carbine and stepping back out around the corner, “Put down the gun John and I’ll make sure they let you go have a night out on the town. Hell I’ll join you, we can hit all the cat houses!”

“Oh yeah, like a lowly grunt like you can make that happen!” John laughed, “Those two G men made the general shake in his boots, your promises are useless.”

When sergeant Brown saw John begin to raise the .45 toward him, he fired off several rounds at John. He could see John twitch as the bullets hit, but John did not go down.

Dr. Kuehn reached out and pulled the sergeant back around the corner, “You can’t shoot him, his skin acts like a non-Newtonian substance.”

“A what?” Brown began running down the hall alongside the doctor.

“The greater the force applied to his skin, the harder it becomes.”

“Are you telling me he’s god damned bulletproof!” Brown darted through a door on their right, dragging the doctor with him. “Anything in here I can use to fight him?” Seeing the doctor shake his head as Sergeant Brown pulled the door closed and locked it behind them, “Come on we can use the freight elevator to get you out.” Brown began dragging the doctor across what appeared to be a large storeroom.

Reaching the other side of the large storeroom they found the freight elevator was up at the top. Dr. Kuehn looked at the sergeant after the sergeant had hit the button to call the elevator, “He’ll get to us before it gets down here.”

“Not much we can do about that but hope that door slows him down long enough for it to arrive.”

“There’s one thing we can do,” Dr. Kuehn took a deep breath as he held out the alien object. “How do you feel about becoming a real life Captain America?”

“Are you serious?”

“I can’t think of any other way to stop him,” Dr. Kuehn stated. “Not only that but he has the other device, we can’t let him take them and use them to create others like him.”

Sergeant Brown pulled his shirt out from his pants, turning his back to the doctor as he lifted the shirt exposing his bareback, “Do it!”

Dr. Kuehn placed the kite shaped alien object on the sergeant’s back and as soon as it attached said, “Quickly go hide, I’ll try to give you enough time for the change to finish.”

The sound of gunfire in the hallway alerted the doctor that more troops had arrived. Dr. Kuehn wished there was something he could do to stop the deaths of those brave soldiers but he had already done the only thing he could do. The men would probably die fighting against the alien augmented John Tucker, but the doctor tried to think of them giving sergeant Brown the time he needed to become the only thing the doctor could think of that had a chance of stopping Tucker and that was another alien augmented man.

It was at least ten minutes before the gunfire came to a halt and only a few minutes after that the door to the storeroom came completely off its hinges as it flew open. “Doc I know you’re in here. Hand over the device and you can leave.” Dr. Kuehn heard John shout after walking into the storeroom. Dr. Kuehn thought about getting on the elevator and going up, he was close enough that he doubted John could get across the storeroom in time to stop him, but that would have left the sergeant who he knew was probably unconscious from the changes the alien object had forced on his body. If John found him before he woke all hope of stopping John would be lost. No Dr. Kuehn had to give the sergeant the time he needed, he had to stall John any way he could.

Making his way slowly across the storeroom, John finally saw the doctor and walked over stopping about six feet away, “Okay Doc, all these morons shooting at me has really tried my patience, give me the device and I won’t lay a hand on ya. Screw with me and I swear I’ll tear your arm off and beat you to death with it.”

“I, I don’t have it,” The fear plainly evident in Dr. Kuehn’s voice.

“Where is it!” John stomped forward menacingly.

“Sergeant, sergeant Brown took it.”

“Which way did he go!” John yelled

One of Dr. Kuehn’s doctorates was in psychology and he knew all about those small tells people inadvertently shown in their body language. Glancing over to his left, the opposite direction Brown had ran, Dr. Kuehn hoped John was observant enough to catch his eye movement and fall for his deceit. “I, I’m not sure which way he went.”

“Doc you’re going to have to get better at lying than that if you ever want to trick a con man like me,” John laughed. “Still I like you so I’m not going to hurt you.” John turned to the direction the doctor had glanced and began looking around for places the sergeant could hide as he walked in that direction.

“Come on Brown,” John spoke loudly as he walked in between several stacked crates, “you’ve been okay toward me, so I’ll treat you just like you’ve treated me. Give me what I want and you can walk away just like the good doc.”

Off to the doctor’s right came a sound of crates shifting. Looking over Dr. Kuehn was startled to see instead of Sergeant Brown, a lithe young woman stagger out from between the crates wearing an olive drab soldier’s shirt that was at least three sizes too big for her. Her long blond hair was a mess and the oversized shirt seemed to be the only clothing she had on as she padded out onto the concrete floor with an M2 carbine in her hand. “I may not have what you want Tucker, but I can damn sure give you what you deserve!”

“Who the fuck are you?” John walked out from between the rows of crates he was in.

“Johnny boy, I’m your worst nightmare,” The woman raised the carbine to her shoulder taking aim at the man across the storeroom. “A woman that can fight back!”

John flinched when the bullet hit him across the bridge of his nose causing his eyes to water. Rubbing the tears from his eyes he began cursing, ‘You stupid bitch! You think that is going to stop me?

“Nope, just wanted to make sure I had your full undivided attention,” she began walking slowly toward John, rife still against her shoulder aimed at him.

Dr. Kuehn gasped when he saw the name ‘BROWN’ embroidered above the breast pocket and sergeant’s stripes on the arm of the shirt.

“Arrgghhh!” John screamed and ran toward the woman.

Waiting until he had built up a good head of steam, the young blond lowered her aim to his pelvic area where his left leg pivoted and squeezed off several bursts of full auto into the area which caused his skin to lock up hard stopping his leg from moving causing John to fall face first to the hard concrete floor. Before John could recover, she dropped the carbine and ran over to him. Grabbing him by the arm she threw him across the storeroom into the wall. Shoving the large crates out of his way as he got back to his feet John looked strangely at the smaller woman.

“Surprise, surprise,” She giggled, “You’re not the only strong one around here anymore.”

“Brown?”

“Oh did I finally knock some sense into that thick skull of yours?”

“You’re a chick?”

“Yeah well at least I’m not stupid.”

“I’ll rip your head off!” John growled.

“Bring it on shit for brains,” Brown smiled wickedly, “I know your weaknesses.”

Looking into her eyes John knew she wasn’t bluffing. Also knowing while she looked like a normal gal, this was still Sergeant Brown, a man trained in hand to hand fighting, not the street brawling that John knew. John could also tell that she was doing her best to get under his skin, and unfortunately John knew it was working. Realizing he needed to get out before she was able to provoke him further, John made a dash for the elevator shaft, grabbing the alien object on his way.

Seeing Tucker race up the open elevator shaft, Brown went over to check on the doctor, “You alright doc?”

“Go, go after him!” Dr. Kuehn stuttered, “You can’t let him get away with the object.”

“Slow down doc,” Brown knelt down beside where the doc had slid down against the wall where he was now sitting on the floor. “We’re in the middle of the desert fifty miles from nowhere and he’s on foot, we got time. I was bluffing when I told him I knew his weaknesses, but if I’m going to stop him I really do need to know if he does have any.”

And once again thanks to Jerri for her awesome editing!

October 5, 1951
Overlooking Homey Airport, Groom Lake, NV

“I think they know we’re here,” Cliff’s wife, Traci whispered from where they were watching the secret installation in the valley below them.

“I don’t think so Mom,” Their son Bobby looked over at his parents, “See all the soldiers are running toward that building, looks like something happened inside.”

“Bobby’s right,” Cliff whispered, “I say we move up our time table and go in under the confusion.”

“I agree,” all three heard Jack over their internal communication channel, “Sounds like someone threw some smelly stuff into a propeller blade, you can’t ask for a better time to sneak in.”

“Okay lets move,” Cliff began to stand, “Keep adaptive camo up, let's try to get in and out without being noticed.” The three proceeded slowly down the hillside so they wouldn’t disturb the loose rocks and cause any small rock slides that could give them away.

Almost down to the floor of the valley Traci whispered over their comms, “I’m picking up an emergency Fruell signal.”

“I see it too,” Cliff responded, “It’s coming from the hangar those men ran into.”

“It can’t be the ship, we destroyed its systems,” Bobby added.

Before they could contemplate what could be giving off the signal a shirtless man ran out of a side door of the hangar and took off running north behind the row of buildings in plain sight of the three that had descended down the mountain behind the buildings. “He’s got a survival pack!” Bobby voiced over their comms.

“He’s apparently activated one, why would he hang on to another?” Traci questioned.

“Human and doesn’t know what he has?” Bobby guessed.

“Doesn’t matter,” Cliff veered off in the direction the man had ran, picking up speed as he did while Traci and Bobby followed, “We have to turn that damn signal off.”

Unfortunately the three were not the only ones that saw the direction the man fled as three jeeps also followed in hot pursuit across the dried up lake bed, the passenger in both lead jeeps firing rifles at the running man. Seeing they had company Cliff spoke into their comms, “Bobby, stay with the man, Traci and I will see about slowing down the competition.” Cliff and Traci angled their path so they would intercept the group of jeeps while Bobby continued after the man.

“Bobby be careful,” Traci added, “we don’t know if he has any control or access to the offensive systems,”

“Yes Mom,” Bobby replied.

Cliff watched as Traci ran up beside the nearest jeep, “Careful we don’t want to hurt them, just slow them down.”

“I know,” Traci replied as she grabbed the side of the jeep with her right hand, “I’m going to flatten a rear tire, then hang on long enough so they don’t lose control while it slows down.” Leaning down a blade appeared above her left wrist that she used to puncture the sidewall of the tire retracting back into her arm before grabbing the jeep with both hands to keep it from fishtailing out of control as it began slowing.

As the tire started to come apart, pieces of it flying off the rim, the soldier sitting in the small backseat saw one larger piece of the rubber tire fly up and stop in midair as if it hit something. Peering closely at the piece of rubber hanging there in the air before it just as suddenly whipped away behind the slowing jeep the soldier thought the air looked strange there, it looked almost as something was there but whatever it was blended so well into the background that it was invisible. Reaching out where the piece of the tire had stopped he could feel something soft and rounded under some kind of invisible cloth. Gently squeezing the rounded invisible object, he suddenly felt an invisible hand slap his face causing him to jerk his hand back. Reaching out once again as the jeep came to a stop whatever was beside their jeep was now gone.

Cliff, having deciding on an alternate means of stopping the jeep he had caught up to, grabbed the rear bumper flipped around so his back was on the ground and using his hands crawled partway under the jeep as it dragged him along. Moments later the jeep lurched as if it had hit a large bump and a bent piece of steel pipe came flying out from under its side causing the jeep to immediately begin slowing down.

Releasing his grip on the rear axle, Cliff let go of the jeep letting it coast to a stop beyond him. Skidding to a stop himself he picked up a baseball sized rock while coming up on one knee, hurling the rock at the grill of the third jeep with enough power that it punctured the radiator and damaged the front of the engine causing it to cough and stop running in a cloud of steam.

Having disabled the jeeps the two raced off in the direction Bobby and the unknown man ran. “Really? You ripped out the drive shaft?” Traci shook her head as she ran up beside Cliff.

“I thought three jeeps all getting flat tires at the same time just might be a bit too much of a coincidence.” Cliff grinned over at his wife, “And a drive shaft coming out like that could easily kick up a rock or two. Giving plausible explanations.”

“I thought you liked those stories they came up with about gremlins getting into the machinery during the war to explain how things stopped working or began working better than they should have?”

“Those stories sucked,” Cliff huffed. “They blamed gremlins on everything that didn’t work and rarely on the stuff when it worked better than it should have.”

“Well one soldier is going to have a story to tell in the jeep that I stopped,” Traci chuckled, “He grabbed my breast and without thinking I slapped him.”

“You know I could have lived without hearing about some guy feeling up my mom,” Bobby laughed over the comm channel.

“You still tailing him Bobby?” Realizing she had said that over an open comm channel changed the subject.

“Yes ma’am.” Bobby replied, Go north northwest across the dry lake then straight north up through the center of the valley. Also he’s slowing down, I think the heat is getting to him.” Bobby relayed over the comms, “Figure he’s going to start looking for a rabbit hole soon if he isn’t already looking for some place to get out of the sun.”

“Stay on him but stay away, we are on our way,” Traci ordered.

October 5, 1951
Underground facility, Groom Lake, NV

Guiding the doctor by the arm, Sergeant brown got the two of them on the elevator and using the barrel of the carbine she had in her left hand to extend her reach and push the ‘up’ button on the freight elevator. It took several minutes for the elevator to reach the top, a slatted metal fence that surrounded the elevator shaft lowering into the floor as it came to a stop inside the large hangar.

Sergeant Brown, having always used the elevator or stairs located in the office building to access the lower levels, had heard rumors that they had a flying saucer but found that seeing it up close was another matter altogether. The silvery disk must have been at least fifty feet across and lay at an angle due to its rounded bottom. The lowest side of the edge of the saucer high enough where a man could have to stoop down to walk under it, while the opposite side edge sat a good fifteen to twenty feet above the floor. Under the saucer scaffolding had been installed to hold the saucer from see-sawing back and forth and allow access to a large jagged hole that could be seen in the underside of the saucer.

“Holy shit!” The girl gasped, “You actually got one! You shot down a foo fighter!”

Several soldiers turned to look at the newcomers, some tending to those that had tried to stop John after he emerged from the elevator shaft. Two picked up carbines where they had laid them on the floor to help with the wounded then approached Dr. Kuehn and sergeant Brown with their carbines at ready. “Doc what are you doing bringing this pom-pom girl in here and why is she wearing the Sarge’s shirt?”

“It’s a long story corporal, one that I am sure will end up classified,” Dr. Kuehn replied. “What you need to know is that she is our best hope of capturing that mad man that came through here.”

“Have you lost your marbles Doc?” The corporal’s eyes widened, “That guy took out half my squad as he ran past us! Ain’t no way I’m letting you send some girl anywhere near that maniac. And even if I would let you the hangar’s on lock down, we’re locked in.”

The corporal watched as the girl walked over to one of the heavy metal side doors. He saw her try the door handle while pushing her shoulder against the door before she stood back and kicked the door with her barefoot. The door flew open with such force that it tore the lower and middle of the three hinges that attached it to the door frame completely apart, leaving the door hanging at an odd angle from its top most hinges.

The girl turned to find most of the soldiers that witnessed what she had done, were staring slack jawed at her now. Looking over at the corporal Brown asked, “Corporal you got a radio around here somewhere?”

“Yes, yes miss, I mean ma’am,” the corporal stuttered.

“Get on it and let everyone know I’m a friendly so I don’t get shot okay?” Looking over toward the doctor, “I’ll bring him back or bring him down, one or the other.”

“I would prefer you bring him back, but I realize he may not give you that option,” Dr. Kuehn nodded.

October 5, 1951
Canyon north of Homey Airport, Groom Lake, NV

Several minutes after leaving the dry lake bed and entering the canyon Traci came to a stop, “There’s another signal now.”

Cliff stopping just ahead of his wife turned back toward her, “Yes, I see it too. It’s back at that airfield.”

~Bobby?~ Traci sent over their comms.

~Yeah Mom, I’m still watching him,~ figuring Traci was checking in with him. ~He found a shady place to crawl into and get out of the sun. I doubt he moves till the sun sets.~

~Bobby we have another signal coming from that base.~

~Want me to pull back and come help?~

~No, we don’t want to have to chase him down again. Keep an eye on him but don’t do anything unless he starts moving again, we have to get that beacon turned off. Your father and I will hold back and take care of this one. That way they do not get the chance to team up if they’re hostile.~

Cliff took a position standing in the mouth of the canyon while Traci concealed herself along the canyon wall ahead of Cliff, but where she would end up behind the new target when Cliff confronted it.

“I can see her.” Cliff spoke softly as he watched the young raven haired woman race barefooted across the dry lake bed at what would have been an incredible speed for a human.

~She?~ Bobby asked over their comms. ~So this guy has a commander with him?~

~I’m sure they are human that somehow activated the packs,~ Traci replied. ~She’s half naked, only wearing an oversized shirt.~

~Damn!~ Bobby swore, ~And I’m stuck out here where I can’t see that!~

~Robert Douglas Ward!~ Traci scolded over the comms, which led to chuckling heard over the comms from both Cliff and Jack.

As the smaller figure of the girl grew closer to the edge of the dry lake Cliff turned off his adaptive camo to make himself visible to the woman, although he did leave his exo-suit engaged but shifted the exterior color to white. Knowing that most thought of the color white as good might give him a better chance of talking to this person before he was forced to subdue her and turn off the beacon. Cliff even went as far as to have the exo-suit display an American flag on his left chest while willing his helmet to go away. Not 100 yards away he saw the woman veer toward him and bring the carbine she had in her hand in front of her to hold it with both hands.

As she got closer she began to slow, finally walking the last few yards to stop roughly twenty feet away from Cliff. Twisting the carbine around so the barrel pointed toward Cliff she spoke loud and with as much authority as her feminine voice could muster, “Who are you and what are you doing out here?”

“Believe it or not, I’m one of the good guys.” Cliff began, “I’ve been looking for that ship your bosses have down there since I shot it down back in forty seven.”

“You shot down that foo fighter?”

“So you’ve seen it?” Cliff asked.

“Not till today, when I started to chase down that jackass that went on a rampage because they wouldn’t let him out to go watch dancing girls,” Brown eyed Cliff nervously. “What kind of weapon can put that big of a hole through a foo fighter?”

“The weapon didn’t make the hole. It turned off the containment field of the ship’s power generator. The unconfined power of the generator made the hole.” Cliff explained, “But the problem we have now is that you and your friend put on the items that changed both of you. They are like a survival kit for the Fruell. Makes them look like the natives of the planet they happen to be on. Problem is they are for emergencies and send out a distress signal like the ones you and your friend are sending out right now.”

“This all sounds too much like Buck Rogers to me and if I wasn’t standing here looking like this now I would probably shoot you rather than listen to any more, but I’ve seen too much to say you’re lying.” Brown sighed, “Although Tucker isn’t my friend. He’s a convict those G men in charge brought in to put on one of those damn things to see what it would do.”

“Even more reason to catch up to him after we’ve turned off your distress beacon.”

“How do we do that?”

“I’ll take care of that,” Brown felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck that felt like someone holding a red hot poker to the back of her neck right as an invisible hand jerked the carbine out of her hands. “Try not to move, I know it’s painful but it must be done, you do not want to invite the Fruell to this planet.” A moment later Brown felt the needle pull out of her neck but the burning continued and felt like it was migrating up into the back of her head. Stumbling from the pain, she felt the invisible hands grab hold to steady her. “It will take a few minutes but the burning will stop.”

“What, what did you do to me?” Brown reached up to cover the back of her neck with her own hand.

“It will turn off the signal you are sending,” Traci who had allowed herself to become visible so it wouldn’t seem so awkward for the young girl, as she led her over to a large rock, helping her to sit on what little shade it offered, “The microscopic robots in your bloodstream from the device you put on are fighting the ones I injected into you. Once the ones I gave you reach the core they will take over the core forcing the system to stop fighting them and to turn off the beacon’s broadcast.”

“So these tiny machines, they are what made me look like this?” Brown saw the woman nod. Thinking to herself that if the changes she received did come from some kind of tiny alien machines maybe since this woman seemed to have some kind of control over these tiny machines, she could make them do other things. Looking up at the mysterious woman, “So you told your machines to tell the machines inside me to stop sending that radio signal?”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that but yes.”

“Can you tell them to put me back the way I was?”

“That’s a lot more complicated than what I know how to do,” seeing the young woman’s shoulders slump forward Traci continued to explain, “But we have some friends that may be able to help. That’s if you’re willing to come with us?”

“Considering that no one will believe I’m really me, I guess staying a soldier is out. You think your friends can help?”

“I promise you that if they can’t, then no one on earth can.”

“That’s not very reassuring.”

“Sorry,” Traci apologized, “I didn’t mean it to sound that way. It’s just that these friends, their technology is more advanced than anything you’ve seen before.”

“You forget I’ve seen your foo fighter.”

“Not ours, that’s a Fruell ship. Most of the technology the Fruell have come from other races they have enslaved over the centuries. Even the weapons they are so proud of are inferior to all the other races of the council. The Fruell just have a lot more of them and massive numbers of slaves to send out to fight for them.”

“You sound like you don’t like these Fruell?”

“My family, we were slaves of the Fruell.” Traci sighed, “We slaughtered other races for them. The microscopic robots in us were programed so that we had no choice but to obey.”

“How’d you get away?”

Knowing the best thing she could do was convince this young woman that Traci and her family were in fact on her side she told how they came to be on Earth, “Our ship’s system were damaged, the three of us were still in our pods and the ships damaged systems rewrote some of our programming, enough so that when we came out of the pods after the crash, the Fruell no longer controlled us.”

“You’d think someone would have seen your ship crash and tell someone.” Brown reasoned, “Even if it was covered up like they did in Roswell.”

“It was, but everyone thought it was a hoax spread by the local newspaper to try to keep their small town from becoming a ghost town.”

“I’m sure I would have read or heard about it if that were true?”

“It happened long before you were born,” Traci explained. “We crashed outside of Aurora, Texas in 1897.”

Brown gasped, “That was over fifty years ago! You can’t be that old?”

“We, and that includes you since you have the same machines in our body, do not age like humans.” Traci made sure the girl knew she was included in the group, “Another thing those tiny machines do, is keep your body repaired so that we do not appear to age. You will live a very long life if you do not remove the Fruell machines.”

“How long?”

“Honestly I don’t know, but I would expect you will live several hundred years, maybe more.”

“Holy cow!” Brown’s eyes widened, “Think of what this could do for people!”

“We have.” Traci sighed, “We are still yet trapped on this single planet. What do you think would happen if everyone lived for four or five hundred years or more? No one dying of old age or other natural causes? The overpopulation and food shortages that would come from that?”

“But what if we gave it to only select people?” Brown asked, “People that would use their extra time to help other, like doctors and scientists?”

Traci shook her head, “Who would choose who receives it and who doesn’t? What would people do that were not allowed to get it once they found out about it?”

“Damn, we can’t let anyone know about this can we? Hell I can’t go back either can I?” Brown began to realize the depth of the situation.

“We won’t stop you if that is what you wish to do.”

“If I did go back I’m betting I would end up a guinea pig stuck in some lab.” Realizing that he, no she had no no money or place to go, she couldn’t even go back to her parents as they would never believe she was their son, “Crap! What’ll I do? Where can I go now?”

“Our friends can help there too, don’t worry.”

Brown sighed heavily, “Okay say I’m convinced you’re the good guys, what the next step?”

“Once that burning has gone away, we go disable the signal on that volunteer convict.” Traci grinned, “Then we go back to the base and make sure there isn’t anything else left on the ship that can cause any more problems.”

Before more could be said Traci heard Bobby over the coms, ~Mom if you're done chatting, I have a problem here.~

~What’s wrong?~

~Signal and the guy disappeared.~

~On my way!~ Cliff responded, ~Traci follow with your new friend once you can.~

Traci pursed her lip at Brown, who was staring at the spot Cliff had just suddenly faded into nothing before her eyes, “How long has it been since you and that man put on the devices?”

“What?” Brown realized Traci was speaking to her, “Um, I put it on right after he escaped. He’s had it on for a few weeks.”

~He’s discovered his camouflage,~ Traci spoke over the comm, ~Use caution as we don’t know how much else he has discovered.~ Speaking aloud while leaving her comm open, “How’s the burning? Can you move yet?”

“Almost gone.”

“Good. Our friend has begun learning some the abilities he now has.” Traci held out her hand to help Brown get up, “We need to get him before he becomes more of a threat.”

The three had spread out, Cliff taking the left side, while Bobby took the far right of the valley, leaving Traci and her new friend coming up the middle of the valley. “Maybe I should have thought more about this, I feel like a worm dangling off a hook,” Brown stated, hoping Traci who had turned on her camouflage and disappeared was still beside her like she promised.

“Don’t talk so loud,” Brown heard Traci whisper in her ear, “If he realizes anyone is with you he won’t think he has the upper hand.”

“You’d think they would have made some way for you guys to see each other when you’re invisible?” Brown spoke softly so that only Traci would hear him.

“They did,” Traci whispered back, “Normally I could see Cliff and Bobby, but like your friend has done, we have turned that off so he can’t see us.”

Knowing it was pointless to tell her again that Tucker was not her friend, Brown continued walking down the wide valley keeping his eyes and ears peeled for anything that might alert her to Tucker’s presence. She never got any warning as not ten minutes later she felt a heavy blow to the side of her head.

Rising up on one elbow Brown shook her head to clear the cobwebs. Several yards in front of her she could see dust being kicked up and hear the sounds of a fight. Assuming Traci had found some way of engaging Tucker, it had to be the two fighting that she could hear but not see. Noticing her carbine laying several feet to her left, Brown scrambled over on her hands and knees to retrieve her weapon. Rising up to a kneeling position with the carbine against her shoulder, pointed in the direction of the fight Brown thought about how ineffective the weapon had been against Tucker, but having nothing else she continued to aim toward the sounds with hope that somehow the ineffective carbine could make a difference.

Brown heard a thud and saw some dust get kicked up as the sounds of the fight stopped. Having no idea who had triumphed Brown held her carbine ready, finger on the trigger. “You already know that gun won’t do you any good!” She heard Tucker laugh, “Throw it down and come with me. You have to have figured out by now they will lock us both up like lab rats for the rest of our lives if you take me back.” Tucker faded into view, “That’s right honey, you’re just like me now. You’ll be locked up in a cage right next to mine.”

“I’m nothing like you!” Brown took aim at Tucker’s head and pulled the trigger, the bullet deflecting harmlessly off his forehead.

“Did getting turned into a dame make you stupid like one to!” Tucker shouted, “We are fucking gods among these piss ants!” Throwing his head back in laughter.

Noticing that Tucker was missing a tooth since the last time she had seen him surprised her, skin so tough that bullets bounced off but Traci had somehow knocked one of his teeth out. Getting an idea Brown took careful aim at the exposed roof of his mouth and squeezed the trigger. As the loud report of the rifle echoed down the canyon, Tucker fell backwards landing with a thud on the hard bare canyon floor.

Brown watched closely for any movement from Tucker, finding none she stood and walked slowly over to his body, keeping the carbine trained on him as she did. Standing over him she looked into his lifeless eyes, “Not so bullet proof on the inside! Should’ve kept your mouth shut.”

Cliff was the first to arrive, spotting Tucker on the ground unmoving he looked over at his wife, who had dropped her camouflage and was once again visible in the mottled light brown not quite cat suit coveralls that Brown had seen her wearing before. “You alright?”

“Took some damage to my spine,” Traci answered. “Going to need a few hours before I’m one hundred percent again.”

~Bobby, need you to scout us out a place to lay low for a few hours,~ Cliff relayed over their comms.

Moments later Bobby appeared, pointing back in the direction he had come from, “Saw some small caves back up that way, one of those should work. Get us out of the sun and out of sight while they search. There’s a couple I think we can conceal the entrance easily enough.”

“Good, you lead, I’ll carry your mother.” Looking over at Brown, “You got a first name?”

“Pat.”

“Okay Pat, can you break off some of that rabbitbrush and follow us, wiping out our any footprints we leave?”

“Um, rabbitbrush?” Brown repeated looking around at the scrub brush around them.

“Scraggly bushes with the yellow flowers,” Cliff explained.

“What about Tucker’s body?” Brown asked while crouching beside one of the plants Cliff had pointed out.

“Soldier from the base will be looking for both of you,” Cliff stated. “Letting them find him will lessen their search.”

“But they will still be looking for me.”

“Yes,” Cliff raised an eyebrow, “Would be the best chance you have of going back if that’s what you want?”

Brown sighed then nodded, “Tucker may have been a criminal but he was right, they will want to study me. I’d never be able to live a normal life again.”

“True, if you go with us we can set you up with a new identity, some place no one knows about your past,” Traci smiled at her.

“Or she could stay with us,” Bobby quickly put in. “Um, I mean she is kind of one of us now and who better to help her learn how to control the abilities she has?”

Traci paused to examine her son’s sudden eagerness in keeping the girl around. How his eyes followed Brown while he was squeezing his left hand down at his side. Glancing over at Brown she could see the girl was clueless of Bobby’s attraction to her. Glancing back over to Bobby, “That decision would be up to Pat, but I do see how it could be beneficial for her.”

“I’m definitely going with you guys,” Brown stated after breaking the bush off near the ground. “What happens after, I don’t know. We’ll just have to take it as it comes.”

“Well then, if you’re sure about that,” Traci smiled warmly at Brown, “I have an idea that may let us complete the mission and get us out of here without causing any more casualties.”

October 5, 1951
Hour and a half later in the Canyon north of Homey Airport, Groom Lake, NV

“Over there!” The soldier sitting in the passenger side of the jeep pointed ahead to their left.

The driver veered their Jeep in that direction, “Damn! She looks like one of them pin up gals. You think that’s the gal we’re supposed to be looking for?”

“How many other black haired dames you think we’re gonna find out here Pete?”

“Yeah, just hard to believe that a gal with looks like that is the one the Doc sent out after that nut job that tore up the place.”

“Maybe with how pretty she is, she could calm the jackass down or something?”

As the Jeep pulled up to a stop Brown walked over to meet it, “Any of you guys happen to bring a canteen of water with you?” Both men scrambled to be the first one to hand her their canteen. Taking the canteen from the driver Brown unscrewed the lid and turned it up gulping down over half its contents as the two men sat staring at her. “Thanks,” Brown handed the canteen back to the driver. “You can radio in and tell them to call off the search, I got him.”

“You got who ma’am?” The passenger was first to respond.

Brown didn’t know how much these soldier knew of what really happened and unsure of what to tell them she stated, “That guy that snuck in and tried to sabotage everything.” Brown turned and walked over to the boulder she had been sitting by using the shade it provided until the jeep had arrived. Going out of sight around the boulder, she quickly returned with Tucker’s body draped over her right shoulder and her carbine in her left hand. Walking back over to the jeep she laid the body out across the hood before walking around and hopping into the back seat.

“Shit!” she jumped up as her bare bottom touched the dark sun heated seat of the jeep. Quickly brushing the over sized shirt under her to to sit on, she sat back down. Seeing both soldiers twisting around to look at her, “Sorry, the seat was pretty hot.”

“Um. Yes ma’am,” the driver nodded then turned to put the jeep in gear and head back toward base.

With the carbine laid across her lap, Brown help her knees together and used both hands to hold the hem of the shirt down so the wind didn’t pick it up and give the soldiers a view of parts of her new body that even she had not really seen yet.

The soldier in the passenger seat had radioed in on their way back, which Brown guessed caused the mass of men standing outside the main headquarters to be standing outside waiting on them. One man began pushing his way through the crowd that Brown recognized, Colonel Egan. ‘Of all the officers that could get here first it had to be him,’ Brown thought to herself.

Brown along with most of the men stationed at Homey airfield cringed at the sight of the overweight balding man. Colonel Egan was in Brown’s mind the head pencil pusher of the base. In charge of supply and personnel the man seemed to live for his paperwork and would quite literally deny a request for not having all your “T’s” crossed or “I’s” dotted. Brown thought back to the day the man had ripped up a request he had put in for a weekend furlough because he had not used her middle initial in her signature when he signed the form.

“What’s this?” Colonel Egan, out of breath from the short trip from the office door to the jeep, saw the body lying across the hood of the jeep. Pointing at two soldiers, “You and you, get a stretcher so this man can be taken to the infirmary!”

“No need to rush boys, he’s dead,” Brown stood up in the back of the jeep. The soldier in the passenger seat jumped out of the jeep and offered a hand to Brown to help her out of the jeep.

Colonel Egan jaw dropped at the sight of Brown, rolling his tongue back into his mouth he shouted, “Who is this woman, why is she wearing Sergeant Brown’s shirt and what is she doing on my base!”

“She works for me Colonel,” Mr. Smith pushed his way through the crowd followed by Doctor Kuehn. “As to why she is wearing the Sergeant’s shirt, he loaned it to her.” Mr. Smith, his left arm in a sling strode up to the Colonel before continuing, “Now as for the rest of your questions. First, let me make one thing perfectly clear, this is MY BASE, not your’s. Second what she is doing here is above your pay grade and has never been or ever will be any of your damn business.” Getting right up in the colonel’s face, “Now if you want to remain on MY BASE I suggest you get back to your desk and push some papers around or whatever it is you do.”

Turning around in a huff, the colonel walked back toward the office building. Mr. Smith called several soldiers by name, ordering them to get the body off the jeep and where he wanted it taken. Turning back toward Brown, “I take it that you were unable to bring him back alive?”

Brown shook her head, “He gave me no choice.”

“Okay, You’re with me and the doctor,” Mr. Smith turned and began walking away. Brown quickly fell in step behind him and Doctor Kuehn as two large soldiers struggled to pick up Tucker’s body from the hood of the jeep. Once they were in the elevator that took them the several stories underground to the lab areas Mr. Smith spoke, “Alright, Kuehn filled me in on what happened to you and why. What I want to know is what happened out there and how did you stop him?”

Brown began filling him in on everything that happened after she left the base in pursuit of Tucker leaving out anything about her new friends and how Tucker had discovered he could become invisible. Brown finished her report as they were entering the lab she had spent so much time with the doctor in. “Any chance of finding me some clothes Doc? This is kind of breezy if you know what I mean,” waving her hands down to display the now dirt and blood encrusted shirt.

“Yes, yes,” Doctor Kuehn looked over at Brown, “I’ll call Martha she should be able to find something more appropriate for you to wear.” Walking over to the phone hanging on the wall he picked up the receiver then paused to look back toward Brown, “Um, what do we call you now? We can’t go round calling you Sergeant Brown anymore.”

“Betty,” Mr. Smith answered. “Lots of Betty’s around very common everyday name.”

Crossing her arms under her breasts, Brown frowned at Mr. Smith, “Yeah, almost as common as Smith is.”

October 5, 1951
Underground facility, Groom Lake, NV

After a well needed and appreciated shower Brown, or Betty as Smith had insisted her new name to be, had a bit of a problem with the clothes that Martha had provided. The bra came very close to being thrown in a corner until Martha realizing that Betty had never worn one before provided directions for Betty to get it on comfortably or at least as comfortably as a bra could be worn. The dress on the other hand Betty found completely out of the question and insisted on trousers and a shirt. Martha had found both that were close to Betty’s size and with a belt fitted although baggy and the trouser legs had to be bloused up into the boots they found her so much that the trouser legs still came halfway down the boots toward the floor. The one good thing the Betty found with her new condition was when Smith had tried to barge into the room while she was getting dressed, the elderly Martha had quickly pushed him back out into the hallway closing the door behind her. Betty could hear Martha through the thick wooden door reading Mr. Smith the riot act.

Once Martha returned to the room, she lead Betty, with Smith close on their heels, back down to Dr. Kuehn’s lab area. After sitting through all of the tests the doctor did with Tucker Betty should have been ready for what she went through for the next two hours, but watching all this done to someone else she found was quite a different experience when going through it yourself. Getting dressed once again Betty thought about all the tests the doctor had put her though, it was time consuming and a few of them very embarrassing, but she did have a better grasp of what she could do now. ‘Charles Atlas eat your heart out!’ flexing her arm in the classic strong man from, breaking down in giggles at the sight of her complete lack of visible muscles.

“Everything okay in there?” She heard Martha outside the door.

Having completed redressing Betty walked over opening the door to find Martha standing in front of it, “Yes, I guess I just found my situation a little funny.”

Martha grinned, “Which situation would that be honey the pretty woman dressed in men's trousers or the pretty woman who used to be a man?” Seeing Betty’s eyes grow wide Martha reached out to gently place her hand on Betty’s arm, “Don’t worry honey, I think Henry, I mean Doctor Kuehn, Mr. Smith and I are the only ones that know.”

Seeing that Martha did appear sympathetic towards her Betty smiled, “Thanks, I think the less that know the better.”

“If it makes you feel any better, the story that Mr. Smith has been telling is that Sergeant Brown died when that uncouth brute started attacking.” Martha changed the subject, “So do tell, what was it that you found funny?”

Remembering what she had done brought a grin to her own face, “I was kind of comparing myself to Charles Atlas, you know with the strength I have now, and tried to make a muscle,” Demonstrating by raising her arm in the classic arm strength pose.

Martha covered her mouth with her hand as she snickered, “Yes that is sort of funny when you think about it. Although you will need to be careful and not let others see how strong you are.”

“Yeah, that or carry a can of spinach around with me to explain it.”

“For some reason I can’t imagine you as that little sailor guy.” Martha giggled, “Although I think you would be a real head turner in a nice navy blue sailor dress with white piping.”

“That’s all I need is men staring at me.”

“Honey with your looks a man would have to be blind not to look.” Martha smiled warmly, “What do you say, let’s go and get some dinner?”

Entering the main lab area they could see both Mr. Smith and Dr. Kuehn had left while Betty was getting dressed. Walking across the lab, Martha opened the main door to leave to find two soldiers barring their way. “Excuse us gentlemen,” Martha attempted to walk past but they did not move.

“Sorry ma’am we’ve orders that Miss Brown is not the leave the lab area.”

“Well I need to leave and I am not going to leave a young woman by herself here in the presence of two young men. You wouldn’t wish her reputation to become tarnished would you?”

“No ma’am,” the soldier replied.

“Then please move aside.”

“Sorry ma’am we can’t do that,” The other soldier answered.

“Oh poppycock!” Martha exclaimed. “Either move out of our way or Miss Brown will be forced to move you.”

Both soldiers found the threat of the smaller woman being able to move them funny, one even had to stifle a laugh while the other joked, “I’d like to see her try.”

Martha sidestepped out of the way while grinning at Betty, “Betty would you please move these two gentlemen out of our way so we can go to the mess hall? Be careful dear, we don’t want to hurt them.” Walking up to the two, Betty gripped the wide webbed belt each one wore their sidearm on and lifted them off their feet. Taking a few steps out into the hall she gently put them back down, the doorway now clear for them to leave.

Martha felt the look on both men’s faces was priceless. She couldn’t determine if it was astonishment, fear, shock or a mixture of all three. Walking out of the room and up to the men, “Now if anyone comes looking for us, we are going to the mess hall and then to the women’s barracks.”

“How? What? How did she do that?” One soldier stammered.

Martha look at the two with an evil grin, “I’ve seen those comic books you boys are so fond of reading, I’m sure you can figure it out. Just remember what goes on at this base is top secret.”

As Martha and Betty walked down the hall the first soldier whispered to his partner, “Shit, she’s like Superman’s little sister or something.”

“Naw, Superman was the only survivor from his planet, she’s more like Wonder Woman.”

“Whoever or whatever she is,” the first replied, “I saw nothing!”

October 5, 1951
Homey airbase, Groom Lake, NV

The women’s barracks was nothing like the open bay barracks the men used with its rows of bunk beds and footlockers the men had. The building had eight rooms that held two single beds, a two each of a standing wardrobe, vanity, and dresser one for each of the two occupants. While the women’s barracks did have a single community bathroom at the back of the building, there were shower stalls giving the women some modesty instead of the open bay showers in the men’s barracks. And of course the long metal urinal trough in the men’s barracks was not mimicked either as it was unnecessary.

Once in the shower stall with the warm water cascading down her body in ways she was not accustomed to the events of the day caught up with her. Betty leaned forward with a heavy sigh resting her forehead against the wall under the shower head.
Opening her eyes Betty stared down at her breasts watching the way the water ran across her large nipples. Reaching up with her right hand, Betty cupped her left breast while thinking to herself, ‘The first ones I get to touch and their my own.’

Grabbing the bar of soap and the cloth Martha had given her, Betty began washing the sand and sweat from her body. She quickly discovered that trying to scrub her new body like she had in the past was not a good idea. Betty found her skin was much more sensitive than it was when she was a man. Working on her breasts she found her nipples were even more sensitive, immediately tightening and sticking out giving her a strange but similar feeling that felt very much like when she was still a man and got an erection, but now in the wrong place.

Trying to ignore the feelings Betty continued to wash herself, reminding herself that the base had a limited water supply and she should hurry while praying this was a temporary condition, she would find a way to turn back to her normal self, if not she would learn to live with it. ‘It isn’t like I’m a weak little girl,’ Betty thought back to her fight with Tucker. ‘No, I’m stronger now than I ever was, hell I’m probably stronger than Charles Atlas now.’ Betty giggled at the thought of arm wrestling Charles Atlas while she turned off the water and began drying herself off with a towel.

After the shower in the women's quarters, Betty finally gave into Martha’s arguments on Betty wearing a dress instead of trousers. The greatest selling point was that it would allow her to fit in better since none of the few women that did work on the base wore anything but skirts and dresses when outside of their small barracks.

Martha had given Betty a room with a girl that looked to be around the same age as Betty, Susie was what Betty would have called typical cheerleader material, Blond hair, bubbly personality, always happy and quite talkative. Not that Betty thought she wasn’t intelligent, to even think about working at Homey you had to be above average intelligence and really good at keeping your mouth shut. Susie didn’t seem to be very good at the latter, but then during the hour and a half that she talked she never said anything about the base or what she did there. It was all about where she was from, her three brothers and one sister and her father’s distillery back in Kentucky and how her father wasn’t pleased with her at going off and choosing a career in medicine instead of finding a husband and becoming a good wife.

When Susie finished her life story she leaned forward from where she sat on the edge of her bed. When Betty didn’t start to offer anything of her background she prodded until Betty gave in telling Susie the truth but leaving out anything about Betty being born a boy. “I grew up in a cabin bout a whole day’s walk from town up in the mountains of North Carolina. My dad made liquor too, but it wasn’t the legal kind like your dad makes, my dad made moonshine. Dad didn’t talk much about it but from what mom told me when I got older it was the only way he could make any money to keep food and stuff on the table. Mom and I both really wanted to get me out of there as my dad and uncle already had me hauling their liquor in an old truck my uncle had and we both knew that soon or later I’d get caught so when I was seventeen my mom and I went down to town and I signed up for the military.”

“Oh my god,” Susie exclaimed, “You’re seventeen?”

Betty shook her head, while stretching the truth a bit since she no longer looked her real age either, “That was a few years ago.”

“So you’re what twenty one now?” Susie giggled, “You make me feel like an old maid.”

“I will be next month,” Betty thought that was as good of an age as any to tell people. “And how can I make you feel old, you don’t look any older than me?”

“Oh sweetie, I love you said that, but I’m almost thirty. That’s why my daddy is so pissed, at my age and unmarried folks back home would think of me as a spinster.”

“Why haven’t you married?”

“I guess I’m still looking for my knight in shiny armor.” Susie giggled again then leaned further forward and spoke softly, “Although there is this one guy here that makes my heart flutter whenever I see him. Have you seen Sergeant Brown? He is so dreamy isn’t he? And he’s always so serious and has that gun with him wherever he goes, kind of like that gun you got leaning against the wall. Now that’s a man I would love to get to know better, but he’s so intimidating I’ve been afraid to even say hi.”

Betty tried to hide her shock at hearing this from Susie. Brown had seen the woman many times in the past but never knew her name or how she felt about him. And while Susie may be a few years older, she was in Betty’s mind jaw dropping gorgeous and looked nowhere near as old as she said she was. “I’ve seen him a couple times,” Betty lied, “I guess he is kind of nice looking.”

It was near ten at night when Susie got up and began disrobing in front of Betty removing everything but her panties. Trying not to stare Betty did the same, removing only her dress and quickly pulling the cotton nightgown Martha had provided her over her head. Susie tilted her head at Betty, “You sleep in your bra? Whenever I do that I end up tossing and turning all night.”

Betty just nodded her head, not knowing if it was right or wrong to leave it on, but with what she had planned she didn’t want to have to fumble around trying to put it back on in the dark after Susie fell asleep. Sometime later after she felt sure Susie was fast asleep Betty quietly climbed out of bed and put the dress back on. She had just began to climb out the window with her boots in hand when Susie rolled over startling her, “So who’s the mystery man?” Susie whispered.

“God dammit, you scared the life out of me!” Betty whispered, “I thought you were asleep.”

“I’m a light sleeper,” Susie grinned in the dimly lit room. “So who is he? Is he cute?”

“I’m not sneaking out to meet a guy.”

“And I’m the queen of England,” Susie snickered.

“Really I’m not,” Betty pulled her leg back inside, propped the carbine against the wall and knelt beside Susie’s bed. “This is hard to explain, but I got to get inside that building with all the guards.”

Susie’s eyes went wide, “No one’s allowed in there, Martha warned us all that they had orders to shoot to kill if anyone even tried.”

“Susie they have a flying saucer from another world in there.”

Susie rose up in the bed, “I’m going to go get Martha, you’ve been out in the sun too long.”

“Wait!” Betty grabbed Susie’s arm, “Remember this morning down in the lab area, I saw you there when Tucker went crazy and was attacking everyone. Sergeant Brown and Doctor Kuehn ran into the area you were working in and started evacuating everyone.”

“Wait a minute you weren’t there I would have noticed you.”

“I’m getting to that,” Betty continued, “ Brown was holding one of those things recovered from the flying saucer, a weird square looking dark gray almost black thing. That thing he was holding changes people. Tucker volunteered to put one on and it changed him so much he looked like someone else before he went all berserk. He came after the doc and me because he wanted the other one we had.”

“Wait Sergeant Brown had it, not you!”

“Tucker cornered us and I put it on hoping it would give me the super strength the one he put on gave him so that I could fight him.”

“You mean the sergeant put it on?”

“It changed me, I’m Sergeant Brown or at least I was,” Betty whispered. “But now I’ve got to make sure there is nothing else left on the flying saucer that could cause even more trouble, who knows what else is there, maybe something in that thing that could destroy the world if someone sneezed on it wrong.” Betty spent the next twenty minutes convincing Susie she wasn’t crazy.

“Alright I’m going with you,” Susie stated.

“No!”

“Why because I’m a woman?” Susie grinned, “Look in the mirror lately? Look if you want to get in there without the guards seeing you, you need me.”

“Why is that?”

“I’ve got something you don’t have.” Susie looked closely at Betty, “I take that back you’ve got it too but you don’t how to use it yet.”

“What’s that?”

“Your looks sweetie,” Susie climbed out of bed grinning. “I may not be as pretty as you sweetie but I can make sure the guards have something other than watching that building on their mind for a few minutes.” Pulling the cotton nightgown off over her head Susie stood there her hands on her hips wearing nothing but panties in front of Betty. “From that expression I believe you really were a guy.” Susie giggled at the look on Betty’s face, “Close your mouth sweetie you’re going to catch flies.”

“Sorry,” Betty looked away from Susie’s bare breasts.

“We are so used to seeing our own, women don’t look that hard at another woman's breasts even if we are envious of how the other woman looks,” Susie explained her thoughts. “A man of course would have been drooling and stepping on his tongue. Now you on the other hand, you didn’t look envious or lustful, you look more shocked than anything.”

“This is just so weird,” Betty tried to explain, “my mind is screaming, ‘beautiful naked woman!’ and it doesn’t make me feel like I think it should and that scares me.”

“Why’s that sweetie?”

“Because I’m afraid it means I may like men now.”

“I think it would be weird if you didn’t start to like men now.” Susie saw Betty sigh and nod.

Once Susie was dressed she saw Betty begin to crawl out the window, “You do remember there is a front door? No one is going to say anything about two girls that couldn’t sleep so they went out for a walk in the cooler night air.” Grabbing her purse Susie walked over to the door opening it. And leave the gun, it would look weird to the guards to see a gal carrying one of their guns.” Betty leaned the carbine back against the wall by the window before following Susie out the door.

As they neared the hangar Betty quietly walked off between two buildings while Susie continued strolling toward the hangar. As Susie approached the nearest guard she began fumbling around in her purse, eventually producing a pack of cigarettes. Placing one of the cigarettes between her lips Susie put the pack back in her purse and continued fumbling around in her purse pretending not to notice the guard she was approaching.

“Ma’am, you need to turn around, this area is restricted!” Susie feigned being startled by the soldier.

“Oh darn,” Looking up from her purse with the sexiest smile she could muster, “I could have sworn I grabbed a box of matches before I left our room.”

“Ma’am you really shouldn’t be out here,” The other soldier standing a few feet away from the first stated.

“I know, but my new roommate she can’t stand the smell of cigarettes and with how hot it’s been I couldn’t sleep.” Picking at the collar of her blouse to draw attention to the fact that she had left a couple of extra buttons undone giving the boys a bit more cleavage to see than would normally be proper, “Would either of you to good looking gentlemen happen to have a light?”

‘Wow,’ Betty thought as she slipped quietly behind the distracted guards and into the hangar, ‘she is good, those guys are so distracted I think I could drive a tank through here and they wouldn’t notice.’ This late at night the interior of the hangar was deserted making it was a simple matter of climbing the scaffolding to go inside the large hole in the saucer. Making her way toward what she thought would be the center of the saucer Betty found it strange how easily she could see inside the dead alien spacecraft. Looking around she could see the string of electrical wires the scientists had strung along that held the electrical lights they had used to illuminate the dark interior. But those lights were off now, Betty could find no other source of light to explain how she was able to see in what should have been pitch darkness. All thoughts of how this was possible fled from Betty’s mind when she thought she heard a voice.

Crouching down, Betty crept forward slowly as quietly as she could, trying to determine where the person was that she heard. Several minutes later and closer to the center of the saucer she heard another voice this time much more clearly and one she clearly recognized. Peering around the portal into the next room and not seeing anyone Betty whispered, “Tracy is that you?”

~Brown~ Tracy replied over the comm.

“How’d you get in the saucer already?”

~I’m not in the ship,~ Traci replied. ~You’re on our comm channel, your comm has become operational.~

“Comm what?” Betty spoke.

~Think of it like a two way radio,~ Bobby joined the conversation on the comm.

“But how are we talking? I don’t have anything like that.”

~Our micros give us the ability. Easiest way to explain it is those I injected you with know our channel and connected you with us.~ Traci didn’t tell her that the injection also allowed Traci to track Brown. While it was something Traci didn’t like doing, in the event that Brown ran off on a killing spree being able to track and stop her overrode any reservations Traci may have had about it.

“So now I have a walkie-talkie in my head?” Betty’s eyes grew wide at the thought of always being able to hear them and they her, “Um, so does it have an off switch or something?”

~Yes, we’ll teach you how but not now,~ Traci answered. ~Wouldn’t want you to accidentally switch it off right now.~

“So can you just hear what I’m saying or are you like reading my mind?”

~We can’t hear what you say, we can only hear what you project to us. So no we can’t read your mind.~

Realizing what Traci was saying Betty tried to think what she wanted to say without talking, ~can you still hear me?~

~Yes of course,~ Traci answered.

~Okay so I can talk to you without actually talking,~ Betty was beginning to get the hang of it.

~Wouldn’t be a good form of communication if we had to stand around talking to ourselves all the time,~ Bobby chuckled over his comm.

~Yeah I was starting to feel pretty stupid talking to the walls inside this saucer.~

~Have you seen anything that looks like it may have power?~ Cliff asked.

~No, nothing so far.~ Betty turned slowly viewing everything in the room she was in, ~No lights anywhere, which is weird because I can see fine.~

~The micros give us enhanced night vision,~ Traci acknowledged.

~Heads up guys,~ Bobby changed the subject, ~we got one guard on the west side, one behind it on the north and three in front. One of the three is female and looks like a non-combatant.~

~The girl is Susie,~ Betty added, ~She distracted those two while I slipped in.~

~Skylights up top we can use to go in,~ Bobby informed.

A short time later the three were standing inside the ship alongside Betty. “Where’s the alien backpack thing?” Becky noticed that none of the three had the last of the devices that had changed both her and Tucker.

“With the army crawling around also looking for it, I wasn’t able to grab it,” Bobby shrugged.

“What if the army finds it?” Becky began pacing back and forth across the Alien ship’s control room, “They’ll end up putting it on someone else, we can’t let that happen!”

“If Cliff and Bobby couldn’t find it, I am sure it is well hidden.” Traci added, “Hopefully well enough that the army will not find it before we can come back.”

“The important thing is it is out anyone’s hand that would try to use it,” Cliff nodded. “For all we know that guy sat a half ton rock on top of it when he hid it. Bobby and I can’t go out there turning over every large rock looking for it while the army’s out there looking for it too.”

“But what if they do find it?” Becky argued.

“We’ll have to take that chance.” Traci warned, “Getting caught looking for it would be worse.”

Cliff and Traci had begun checking the consoles and terminals in the room. Traci looked up from the one she was checking to see Bobby standing there looking at Betty. “Bobby!” Traci said loud enough to break his captivation of Betty, “Why don’t you and Betty check out the other passageways while we do this?”

“Good idea Mom,” Bobby beamed, “Let’s check this one first.” Bobby pointed toward the opening behind Betty. Once a little way
s down the passageway Bobby smiled over at Betty, “Your name’s Betty? It suits you, I mean it’s a pretty name and you’re really pretty.”

Traci, still in the control room, whispered to Cliff, “I believe your our is infatuated with her.”

“What?” Cliff looked up from the console he was inspecting.

“Haven’t you noticed the way Bobby’s been looking at her?”

“Who?”

“Betty.”

“Who’s Betty?”

“Have you heard a thing anyone’s said since we came into the ship?”

“Sorry but I’ve been concentrating on making sure this thing is dead. Can’t believe Bobby was just standing there, he knew what to do once we came onboard.”

“Yes, it was like something else had his full undivided attention,” Traci smirked.

“Yeah he was just standing there staring at the girl…” Cliff’s eyes widened in recognition.

“She looks a lot like Ruth,” Traci whispered while her thoughts wandered back to their past. Ruth was a young widow at the time that had helped them after the crash. She and Bobby had found an attraction for one another that grew until Bobby had asked her to marry him. Ruth, the only human they had confided in telling the truth of who and what they were, refused to marry Bobby. Her refusal was not because she did not love him, her reason was quite the opposite she loved him with all her heart and soul, but Ruth also knew that Bobby would not age, at least not like she would. Ruth did not wish the man she loved so much to be forced to sit and watch her grow old and die. Although her pleas that he move on fell on deaf ears as Bobby refused to leave her side, later posing as her son as the difference in their apparent ages became greater. After Ruth’s funeral Bobby had disappeared for over a decade before reuniting with Traci and Cliff, who had in the meantime discovered there were others like themselves stranded on Earth living in a small town in Washington state. Of course discovering there was a place that held the technology that could have saved Ruth led Bobby back into another bout of dark depression that he remained in until several years after the trio had moved to a small farm outside of El Paso. Traci’s thoughts were interrupted when Cliff signaled for her to follow him into the other passageway that Bobby and Betty had not taken.

In the passageway he and Betty had been exploring Bobby tried to concentrate on his job as he and Betty progressed through each room in the short passageway but found it difficult and found himself glancing over at Betty often. She looked so much like what he remembered of his beloved Ruth when she was young. ‘Not exactly like Ruth,’ Bobby thought to himself. Knowing that Ruth’s hair, which she normally kept up in a bun was much longer than Betty’s, nor was it as dark as Betty’s. In the sunlight it was easy to see that Ruth’s hair was a dark brown, while Betty’s hair was so black that it almost seemed to have a bluish tint when he first saw her out in the desert. Betty’s facial was a bit different than he remembered of Ruth’s also, but then Ruth had been fifty seven when she died twenty years ago so he memories of Ruth’s youth were quite old.

~Bobby, we found something,~ Cliff’s voice came over their comms. ~I need you and Brown to meet us in the other passageway.~

~We’ve not finished here,~ Bobby sent back.

~Doesn’t matter,~ Cliff responded. ~We have to destroy this ship.~

October 5, 1951
Inside Captured Alien ship, Groom Lake, NV

Rushing over Bobby found Cliff and Traci in a small room in the other passageway discussing what they had found. Looking at the back wall of the small room Bobby gasped when he spotted the item that had them so concerned, “A sentinel!”

“What’s a sentinel?” Betty spotted the sole object in the room that put her in mind of a suit of medieval armor.

“It’s a Fruell battle suit,” Traci answered.

Walking over to get a closer look at the armor Betty stated, “So it’s an alien suit of armor. Why would you need to destroy the ship because of this? Why can’t one of you put it on and walk out with it?”

“It’s also armed with weapons way beyond the technology of this world. They have built in safeguards that keep their slave races from opening one,” Traci reached over placing her palm on a round plate on the chest of the armor to demonstrate.

“So we destroy it. We need some dynamite or something to do that don’t we?” Betty asked.

“We found a black star container in the damaged section, we can use that to blow the ship.” Traci replied.

“What is a black star and how big of a blast will it make?” Betty nervously asked.

“It’s what a star becomes when it collapses in on itself becoming so small and dense with so much gravity that even light can no longer escape.”

“As for the size of the explosion, we’ll have to find a way to evacuate this base,” Traci sighed. “I doubt even the underground areas will survive the explosion.”

“Is that the only way?” Betty asked, “Isn’t there some way we can get this out of here without blowing up the base?”

Cliff stated, “This sentinel was probably the ship’s commanders, only she would be able to operate it. Only thing we can do is destroy it.”

Something that Cliff said triggered something in the back of Betty’s mind. While she couldn’t place her finger on what it was he said but it gave her an idea. More of a hunch than an idea but something she wanted, no not wanted, needed to try. Stepping quickly over to the armored suit before her new friends could try to stop her, Betty placed her hand in the same spot that Traci had shown her. Seeing that nothing happened Betty sighed as she turned around shrugging her shoulders at her three companions, “It was worth a try.” Although none of the three were looking at Betty when she turned around, they were all staring past her at the sentinel.

“I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!” Cliff exclaimed.

Turning back around to see whatever it was they were looking at, Betty saw the large dark man shaped armor had a soft blue glow coming out of what appeared to be seams that were slowly widening along its torso, arms and legs. “Is it opening?” Betty glanced back to the others.

“I always thought it used a genetic lock, apparently it must be the micros.” Traci grinned at Betty, “And my dear, you have Fruell commander micros in your system.”

“Your chariot awaits,” Bobby waved his hand in a sweeping motion at the sentinel, which had opened to reveal a human shaped area inside it.

“What?” Betty’s eyes grew wide, “I can’t drive that thing! One of you do it.”

“We can’t, it won’t respond to us,” Cliff stated. “You have to do it.”

“Don’t worry,” Traci confided, “Once you’re sealed inside, it will feel like an extension of your own body.”

Feeling that Traci would not lie to her, Betty backed up to the opening and stepped into it before pulling herself into the cavity inside. Once positioned inside the large beast of a machine Betty looked at her friends, “Okay what now?”

“Think about closing,” Cliff suggested.

Bobby quickly added, “Do the same thing to open it to get out.”

The three watched as the armor panels closed encapsulating Betty inside the powered armor. Seconds later both hands of the huge sentinel came up in front of its smooth faceplate rotating and making various finger movements. The sentinel looked over where the three stood and with Betty’s voice spoke, “Wow, these feel like my real hands.”

“Yes the sentinel integrates with your micros to become part of you,” Cliff explained.

Suddenly the sentinel went stiff and the panels opened exposing Betty once more. “Thank god!” Betty gasped, trying to catch her breath while pressing her own hand into her stomach.

“You alright?” True concern showing on Bobby face as he stepped over placing his hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah, just needed to make sure I could get of that thing.” Betty let out a huge breath then looked at Cliff, “When you said it would become part of me, I was afraid I would be stuck in it like the thing that changed me.”

Bobby smiled at Betty, “Well now that you know you can get in and out of the sentinel when you wish, are you ready to close it up and get out of here?”

Still nervous, Betty smiled thinly nodding her head. Once Bobby removed his hand she willed the armor to close around her once again.

Traci was the first to reach the floor of the hangar after climbing down the scaffolding from behind her she heard a female voice, “So did you find what you were looking for?” Spinning around in the direction of the voice to find a blond haired woman standing there.

“You, you’re not Betty?” The blonde’s eyes went wide.

“Susie what are you doing here?” The blond heard Betty above them. Looking up Susie could make out three figures in the darkness climbing down.

“I came to help,” Susie looked at the three as they finished climbing down, trying to figure out which one was Betty but even in the dark hangar she could tell all were too tall to be Betty. “Where’s Betty? And who are all of you?”

“They’re friends,” Susie heard the voice of Betty coming from the tallest of the group.

“Betty?” Susie peered at the tall dark figure.

“Yes it’s me.” Betty spoke, “Don’t flip or anything, I’m in the alien armor.”

“Holy cow!” Susie stared as she walked over to get a better look, “You’re really inside that thing?”

“How’d you get in? What about the guards?”

Susie giggled then pulled a couple of syringes from her purse that she held out for display, “Last I saw of them one was chasing imaginary butterflies and the other was peacefully sleeping.”

“What?” Betty’s voice rose in pitch, “What’ll you do when they wake up?”

Susie bowed her head down toward the ground, “I… well I was kind of hoping to go with you, after I free my father.”

“Your father?” Betty asked.

“Yes, my father.” Susie explained, “My real name isn’t Susie, it's Greta, Greta Kuehn. Doctor Kuehn is my father and they won’t allow him to leave the base.”

“He’s a prisoner?” Cliff asked.

Susie, or Greta as that was what she said her real name was, could feel that being totally honest with Betty’s friends may be the only way to get their help, “My father was one of the scientists that were forced to work for the Nazis during the war. When the Americans came they offered to take us both to the United States where he would be allowed to work for the government, but they have not been much better than how the Nazis treated him and haven’t allowed him to leave this base for the past five years.”

“Is this true?” Cliff looked toward the taller armored Betty.

“Few weeks ago that Smith guy did change me to following the Doctor around,” Betty began. “At first I figured it was for his protection but some of the things Smith ordered me to do started to seem a bit strange especially when he began debriefing me every night on where the doctor when throughout the day.”

“Sounds to me like Miss Kuehn is telling the truth,” Tracie stated.

Cliff looked toward Bobby, “You get the doctor and head directly toward the rendezvous point while Brown, your mother and I see if we can gather enough supplied for them to make it there.”

“I should get the doctor,” Betty interrupted, “I know the layout down there.”

“I have a car in Crystal springs,” Greta added.

Traci shook her head, “That’s the nearest town, it’s the first place they would look for us.”

“And we have something better than a car,” Cliff grinned. “We have an airplane.”

“But this is a no fly zone, they’ll shoot us down!” Greta gasped.

Traci turned to Greta, “That’s why you and your father will need plenty of water. With you with us it may take us three days to walk to where it’s safe for the plane to pick us up.”

Slipping back out of the hangar the group quietly made their way around the numerous buildings. As they passed the women’s barracks Betty reached into the open window of her and Greta’s room, retrieving the carbine that had been her best friend and ally for so many years.

Once they were far enough away from the base that they no longer had to worry about being heard, Betty carried Greta piggy back style while Cliff did the same with the doctor allowing the group to move at a faster pace than would have been possible if the two had been left to walk. Staci and Bobby brought up the rear carrying the makeshift supplies they had managed to commandeer while Bobby and Greta located Greta’s father and brought him back. As the sky grew lighter in anticipation of the rising sun Bobby ran ahead to scout for a cave or large rocky overhang where they could rest and sleep hidden from the blistering heat of the sun and any search planes the military might send out once they realize several of their people are missing.

Bobby managed to find a small cave, its entrance was small requiring everyone to crawl in on their hands and knees although it opened up quickly into a much larger cavern. While the ceiling was not quite high enough for everyone to stand completely upright it was enough that they were able to get up off their hands and knees after entering. Betty had the most difficulty of all inside the seven foot tall alien suit of armor. Crawling further back into the cave out of the way Betty laid down on her back and thought of the suit opening so she could get out.

Doctor Kuehn gasped when he saw the black armor open and Betty climb out in the dim light of the cave, “Unbelievable! You my dear are unbelievable.” Doctor Kuehn smiled at Betty, “Would it be possible for me to use it?”

“Sorry doc,” Cliff interrupted, “None of us can use it but her.”

“Why is that?” Doctor Kuehn turned to look over where Cliff sat against the cave wall.

Cliff explained about the microscopic machines they had and how the device they had put on Sergeant Brown was akin to a survival device that would change the wearer into a very realistic impersonation of the race it was set to mimic. “So you three have put on these devices too?” Doctor Kuehn interrupted.

“No,” Traci took over, “We were genetically engineered differently as slaves to the Fruell, we could only use those items that the Fruell created for us to use. We never knew any race but the Fruell could put the device on that changed Betty. Our best guess is since it was set to mimic human genetics it reacted when a human to put it on.”

“So why is Betty the only one who can use that robot armor?” Doctor Kuehn quizzed.

“Best we can reason out is that since the microscopic machines that changed the Sergeant were designed to be used by Fruell and not one of their slave races, the sentinel armor recognizes her as a Fruell,” Traci clarified.

“I would really love to meet one of these Fruell one day,” Doctor Kuehn stated.

“Doctor please believe me when I say this,” Traci grimaced, “The last thing you want is to meet a living Fruell.”

“The Fruell make the Nazis look like boy scouts,” Cliff added.

Bobby interrupted their discussion as he began passing out large metal cups that he filled with water from the jerry can that had been appropriated before they left the base.

“We should all find comfortable spots and try to get some rest, we’ll be moving out soon as the sun starts to set,” Bobby stated as everyone began handing him back the empty cups.

October 8, 1951 7:46AM
Somewhere northwest of Groom Lake, NV

Cliff and Jack had been in contact over their comms for close to an hour before the sun began peeking over the mountains to their east. Stopping at the edge of another of the numerous dry lake beds that dotted the barren landscape, Cliff turned toward his companions while letting go of Doctor Kuehn’s legs so he could get down from where Cliff had been carrying him on his back. “Where’re here,” Cliff grinned, “Our ride is about fifteen minutes out.”

It was closer to twenty five minutes when they spotted a small gray dot in the sky to the north flying low, almost seeing to scrape the distant mountain peaks. Crossing above the last of the peaks, the plane dipped down into the valley flying no more than fifty feet above the dry lake bed. As the plane closed the distance Betty could make out that it looked a lot like one of the twin engine sea planes the Navy used during the war. Two large wheels lowered down out of recesses in the fuselage under the wings as the aircraft lost altitude and speed until the two wheels touched the sunbaked dry lake bed. Continuing to lose speed, the tail of the aircraft lowered down until it rested on a much smaller wheel that had lowered down out of the bottom rear of the fuselage when the two larger main wheels had lowered. The aircraft continued to slow as it continued toward the group, Around fifty feet from the group with the aircraft now slowed to the point of a person’s walk, the port engine powered up faster and the aircraft pivoted on its starboard front wheel to turn and face the direction it had come from before both engines powered down to an idle and it stopped.

A small side door swung open right before the top of the opening swung upward and inward creating a larger opening as the group walked toward the amphibious aircraft. Betty saw a thin man lean down and hang a metal framework of steps out of the bottom of the opening. From the gray hair Betty figured this man had to be at least fifty to sixty years old. “Fer y’all that don’t know me, I’m Capt’n Jack, welcome aboard. Betty you first, That way we can get you out of that tin can you’re in,” Jack motioned as he backed up out of the opening so she could climb into the aircraft. Once Betty climbed in he directed her towards the front of the aircraft, up past six seats that sat three on each side by the long rectangular windows on each side of the aircraft and into an oval hatchway into the cockpit. Each side of this area of course had the pilot and copilot's seats along with the controls, gauges and instruments they needed to fly the aircraft duplicated in front of each of the two seats. The bottom lip of the center section of the instrument panel thinned upward causing the bottom of the instrument panel to have almost an arched look to it. Under this arch was another hatch, smaller than the entrance hatch but still large enough for someone to crawl through easily.

Opening the hatch, Jack back out of the way, “Should be enough room fer ya to lie down and get out of that tin can you’re in.”

Seeing there were a couple of steps down into the compartment, Betty turned around and crawled down into the room feet first. Once inside the small compartment Betty saw that it was probably near eight or nine feet in length. Along the right side it had two small bunks, one above the other, made out of canvas stretched across metal tubing. The left side of the compartment held various machinery, most of which she had no idea what function they served. What she found the strangest was the coil of rope hanging on the wall attached to a boat anchor. Although after thinking about it this was an amphibious airplane capable of landing in the water so having one did make sense even though it felt out of place. The compartment narrowed sharply away from the door as it was in the nose of the aircraft so Betty lay down in the floor with her head near the door, her feet stretching toward the narrow end before sending the thought command to open the suit of armor, allowing her to climb out of it.

Climbing back out of the forward compartment, through the cockpit into the main section of the aircraft, Betty found Jack passing out bottles of water. “There’s more in the cooler in the back,” handing one to her Betty as she sat down in one of the empty seats.

After looking at the label on the large glass bottle Betty looked up at Jack, “Mineral water?”

Already back in the cockpit, Jack twisted in the seat he was in to look back at Betty, “Figured y’all would want something cold and wet. I’m surprised I could find that. It’s not like a lot of people want to pay for something you can get for free out of your kitchen sink.”

“I must say that I am very glad to have this cold water after our trek,” Doctor Kuehn raised the quart glass bottle while voicing his gratitude.

Cliff stopped, turning around at the opening to the cockpit, “The seats recline, latrine is through that door,” pointing at another hatch type door with rounded bottom and top like the opening to the cockpit. “We got about three hour flight where we’ll be stopping for fuel, stretch our legs and grab some food before we take off for home.”

October 8, 1951 11:04AM
Lake Tahoe, California Nevada border

The sound of the flaps lowering at the same time the engine pitch changed woke Betty. Bringing her seat back upright from where she had reclined it before falling asleep, Betty looked out the window. Seeing water below them that was quickly getting closer made her gasp, but then she remembered the aircraft was amphibious and built to land in the water. Betty watched as they came closer to the water below them until the sound of the aircraft became the sound of a boat’s hull cutting through the water. Looking around at her new friends, those that were still asleep were awakened when the aircraft landed in the water. Ten minutes later Jack and Cliff had maneuvered the aircraft to an empty dock and shut down its twin engines. While Cliff, Jack and Bobby tied the aircraft off to the dock, Tracy pulled Betty and Greta into the forward compartment where Jack and told Betty to store the sentinel suit.

In the forward compartment Traci came up with clean skirts and blouses for all three women, who were luckily close enough to the same size to borrow some of the clothes she had stored on the aircraft. Once the three had clean clothing they took turns in the small bathroom in the rear of the aircraft to give themselves a sponge bath and change, once presentable Traci led the girls out of the aircraft onto the dock.

Looking around there was no sign of Cliff and bobby, Jack had found a shady spot to sit under the wing on one of the large wooden pilings that supported the dock with a fishing pole in one hand, its line trailing down into the water between the aircraft and the dock. Believing the area looked familiar, Traci gave jack a questioning look, “Tahoe?”

Jack nodded with a grin, “Cliff send Bobby down to grocery to pick up some things while he went to arrange the refuel.”

“We’re going to walk down to the marina’s cafe to grab some lunch. Care to join us?” Traci invited.

“Naw, think I’ll sit and keep this old girl company,” Jack nodded toward the airplane. “Wouldn’t want anyone nosing around that thing it the forward cabin either.”

“Sure the reason’s not that fishing pole in your hand?” Traci rolled her eyes.

“Well figured this was as good a way to kill some time as any while I guard the plane,” Jack grinned.

“Want us to bring you back anything?”

“Nope,” Jack’s grin widened as he reached down picking up a bottle of beer he had sitting on the dock. “Got everything I need right here.” Holding the beer out so the women could see it before he took a long drink from the bottle. As the women turned and began walking toward land Jack raised his voice to be heard, “Now don’t y’all go filling up on that stuff at the diner or y’all miss out on tasting my famous beer battered fish when ya get back.”

Realizing the plane had no kitchen area Betty stopped and turned around, “How are you going to cook em?”

Throwing his head back toward the hatch that led into the aircraft, “Got me one of those fancy Coleman camp stoves in the aft compartment cooking ‘em won’t be a problem.”

The marina had a small bar that was more of a cafe that served alcohol than a normal bar, but then this was lake Tahoe and even though they were in Tahoe City and not the areas to the north where the casinos were located but with the fact that the lake did not freeze over in the winter and the casinos and skiing the whole area was quickly becoming a vacation area for the well to do. Sitting at a table where they had a good view of the docks Traci ordered three iced teas and three chef’s salads for everyone.

Betty leaned over to Traci whispering, “Really, Thanks for the meal but a salad?”

Talking low enough so that only Betty and Greta could hear, “One of the things you’re going to have to get used to now that you’ve changed. You need to eat like a other women when in public.”

Greta leaned in, “I haven’t had a decent salad in some time and you might find that you don’t need as much to fill you up as you used to.”

“I’m suddenly hoping Jack catches a lot of fish,” Betty giggled.

When the food arrived Betty tried to mimic the way Traci and Greta were eating with small bites and taking her time. At one point she remembered the rattlesnake Bobby had killed and cooked for them on their last day in the desert and how it tasted. Looking up at her two new friends, “You know I think that pieces of that rattlesnake Bobby cooked would have gone really well with this.”

Greta shuddered as she remembered the meal, “While I’m glad we were able to eat something other than those horrible C-Rations we had with us, I thought it tasted quite gamy and nothing like chicken.”

While they ate they saw the fuel truck arrive and then depart so when they finished their salads Traci waved the waitress over to settle their bill. “It’s been taken care of by the gentleman at the bar,” The waitress motioned to a lone man sitting at the bar wearing black trousers a white short sleeved shirt and a straw fedora.

Looking at her friends as she stood up from her chair, “ladies I think we should go thank him for his kindness.”

Walking over to the bar with Traci in the lead Traci stepped up beside the gentleman, “Excuse me sir. My friends and I wanted to thank you for paying for lunch.”

Turning around with a wide smile to face the women, “It was my pleasure.”

Greta’s mouth fell open and eyes widened, immediately recognizing the man once he had turned to face them. “You, you’re Frank Sinatra!” she gasped.

Guilty as charged ma’am,” Reaching up with one hand to the brim of his hand to pull it down slightly then back up. “I was wondering if you ladies might know who you chartered that aircraft from. My friends and I could use the services of a seaplane and pilot from time to time.”

“Sorry it’s not chartered,” Traci stated. “It’s ours or I should say my husband's, he flew it in the war.”

“I’m surprised the government sold it to him?”

“They didn’t.” Traci explained, “It was crash landed on some island during the war. After the war my husband went back and repaired the plane good enough to fly it out of there to a place where he could make better repairs. It took us close two years to go there and bring it home.”

Frank shook his head, “That’s a long time to be away from your family.” Traci came close to correcting him and telling him that she and Bobby had gone with Cliff but thought best to leave out that out of the conversation.

“So I’m guessing you’re on vacation with your lovely sisters?” motioning at Betty and Greta.

“We just stopped for gas,” Deciding that leaving him thinking they were sisters added to the story they had agreed upon. “We’re on our way home from LA.”

“Oh and where is home if you don’t mind me asking?”

“A little town east of Seattle up in the mountains called Enchanted Valley. I’m sure you’ve never heard of it, no one has,” Traci answered. Glancing over her shoulder at the dock, “I’m sorry but we really need to get going. I’m sure my husband is anxious to get back in the air. Thank you once again for buying our lunch Mr. Sinatra.”

October 8, 1951 6:28PM
Enchanted Valley, WA

Betty climbed down out of the plane onto the sandy beach wearing the sentinel armor once again. “This way,” Jack motioned at the large dark robotic suit. Betty followed Jack to what Betty thought of as a large tool shed or small barn. Jack opened one of the double doors and held it motioning Betty to go in, “We can store the suit here for now.”

Betty walked inside then turned around facing the door before keying the suit to open and release her. Before down stepping out of the suit she couldn’t help but think about how secure the armored suit against anyone trying to steal or tamper with it. Hopping down the ground she turned to watch as the armor closed back up, when she heard, ~Temporal stasis initialized.~ Followed by some strange noises. No sooner had those words echoed in her head an opaque substance began forming on the armor and expanding outward several feet in all directions around the armor.

“What did you do?” Jack gasped.

“I don’t know,” Betty stood staring at the opaque cocoon that had formed around the armor.

From behind both of them they heard Cliff, “Well I guess that’s one way of making sure it don’t go anywhere.”

“What happened?” Betty turned around to see cliff standing behind Jack.

“It’s a stasis field,” Cliff informed.

“It said something about stasis,” Betty relayed what she had heard. “Temporal stasis was the word.”

“Did it tell you anything else?” Cliff quizzed.

“Um yeah but it sounded really weird some kind of low growl followed by a clicking noise.” Betty relayed before asking, “What was it?”

“I’m guessing that was the timer telling you how long before the stasis could be removed. Sentinels have tremendous firepower in a small mobile package, thus some real serious security to keep them from being reversed engineered by other races.”

“Okay so after the council figures out what to do with it we get a forklift,” Jack chuckled.

Cliff shook his head, “Till its timer counts down you couldn’t move it will an A bomb.”

“Any guess as to how long that timer is?” Jack asked.

“I’m only guessing, but since it was designed to keep the sentinel from falling into enemy hands they would want it to remain in stasis for the remainder of whatever war they were fighting so I would guess at least five years and possibly up to fifteen years. Then of course only Betty or one of the Fruell can take it out of stasis once the timer has run down.”

“Or if we find the other survival pack and another human volunteers to put it on,” Traci added after walking up in the middle of the conversation.

“So what do we do with it?” jack asked.

“Nothing we can do but leave it there,” Cliff shrugged.