Shareware Supreme Volume 6 #1/swsii.zip/swsii/201/RUBYV22.ZIP/RUBY22-2

Text File | 1993-06-26 | 11KB | 186 lines

Copyright 1992(c)

                        THE EVENING STAR
                       By T. Gregory Kirby

     It was a perfect August evening. Saturday, August
twenty-second, to be exact. My wife Linda, our two children, and
I, along with Sam, his wife Jane, and their two boys, spent the
latter part of the afternoon stuffing ourselves with
goodies--hamburgers, hot dogs, and related cookout trimmings.
After clearing away the grill and assorted tools, we played some
outdoor games, including badminton and pitching horseshoes. Tired
and happy, we sat down in lawn chairs and fell into conversation.
     Sam and his family lived nearby and we'd been close friends
since we moved to the neighborhood. When they left, about eight,
I lingered outside, reflecting on the ease with which we often
got together for spur-of-the-moment things like this impromptu
cookout. The rest of my crew went inside: Linda said she had some
things to do before it got too late, and the boys, being boys,
wanted to play a new video game they rented at the neighborhood
video store. From my vantage point in the chair, I could
occasionally hear faint sounds of video battle coming from the
direction of the den.
     As the western sky slithered from the deep red of sunset to
an increasingly intense shade of rich blue, I leaned back in the
lounge chair and, looking up at the gradually fading sky, watched
the stars begin to peep out, one at a time.
     First, the brightest one. Then, after a few seconds, I could
make out another one...then another...and almost immediately
another. Within what must have been only a few minutes, they were
peeking out faster than I could count.
     I happily lost track of time. With a relaxed smile on my
face, I leisurely returned my gaze to the now twilight western
horizon which had so effortlessly swallowed the Sun a little
while earlier.
     That's when I first saw it!
     "Well, what have we here? Looks like the Evening Star has
decided to present itself for me." I mused aloud. I couldn't
remember seeing such a bright star hanging in the western sky in
a very long time. To be that bright, it must be a planet, perhaps
the planet Venus.
     I continued to gaze at the bright star, shining with the
white blaze so characteristic of Venus. Often mistaken for an
Unidentified Flying Object, Venus was more commonly known as the
Evening Star. Before people knew much about it, Venus was thought
to be two different planets: one when visible in the morning sky
and another when in the evening sky, as it was now. I moved my
gaze to the myriad of stars now displayed so magnificently
everywhere overhead.
     It was a smart move, I thought, to have bought this house
out in the country. It was so much quieter here than the
apartment in town.  No loud traffic, no bright streetlights, and
no loud neighbors keeping us awake until all hours of the night.
     In addition, ours was the last house on a dead-end street.
The nearest house was over a half mile away. Life was good!
     I slowly made my way around the sky, trying to pick out
various constellations I vaguely remembered from my youth. I was
confident that I identified the Big and Little Dippers, and
definitely discerned the Milky Way; the band of light which
stretched across the heavens like a pallid, ghostly swath of
spilled stars. I could even make out the dark rift which began
almost directly overhead and extended to the southern horizon.
The sky was now quite dark, and what seemed to be a million stars
were peering back at me.
     For reference, I once again returned my gaze to the
now-darkened sunset point. The brilliant star I had seen earlier
was still there; and, in fact, it hadn't seemed to have moved. I
was sure it was the same height above the skyline as it was when
I first noticed it.
     "How odd. I would have thought that Venus would have set by
now."
     I continued to sit there gazing at the lovely,
brilliant-white beacon dangling like some forgotten lantern just
above the horizon. It seemed to hang there, suspended without
effort, as if waiting for a signal to drop behind the distant
hills.
     "What the....!!" I exclaimed. That's impossible!" I would
have sworn that I saw Venus move upward in the night sky.
     Thinking I must be losing my mind, I gazed fixedly at the
bright planet. Stars did not move upward, away from the horizon,
instead of toward it as they should.
     More minutes passed as I sat there, transfixed by the
enigmatic object, eagerly awaiting any further movement. After a
while, I decided I must have imagined the movement.
     I glanced toward the house, noting that one solitary window
was dimly lit from within. Linda would, I knew, be deeply
engrossed in one of her many personal projects, and would not
miss me. I resumed my skygazing, returning my attention once more
toward the beautiful Goddess of Love.
     And Venus had moved again! It should be on or below the
horizon, but it wasn't. Something strange was going on.
     I continued to watch the star for several more minutes, and
was sure I saw it move again. This time it seemed to be getting
gradually brighter as it climbed perceptibly higher in the sky.
     "That damned thing looks like it's headed this way." I
murmured in disbelief. It seemed to be coming straight toward me.
     Frozen with wonder I continued to watch the bright light.
Obviously, it wasn't Venus or any other planet. It couldn't be an
airplane's strobe light; strobes on aircraft flash. I didn't know
what it was. It was rapidly approaching me, and so bright as to
be almost too much to look at for more than a second or two.
     The thought suddenly entered my mind to make a dash for the
safety of the house when, as if on cue, a brilliant beam of green
shot out from the light, which could now be discerned as a
spherical shape. For some reason, I couldn't get my feet to move,
regardless of how I tried. An eerie feeling pervaded me, locking
my muscles so they wouldn't obey my desire to flee.
     Then, as suddenly as the beam had engulfed me, the shiny
object stopped abruptly, hovering soundlessly about twenty feet
or so from me. It was so close that the outer rim of it was
hardly more than a couple of times the length of my arm away. I
was confident that it was some kind of alien spacecraft.
     Through the green light which bathed me I could barely make
out a shiny, metallic-skinned object with a surface that
reflected like polished chrome. It appeared round in shape, about
thirty feet in diameter and twelve feet in height. Straining to
hear, I thought I could detect a low, constant humming noise,
reminiscent of the distant sound of heavy, high-speed machinery.
     I felt drained ... terrified. An opening began to appear in
the perfectly smooth side of the object, from which a bright
light gushed forth.
     I wanted to scream, but couldn't make a sound. I felt
completely helpless, and could only await whatever fate I would
be handed from whatever, or whomever, was in that sphere.
     The green beam was gone, and only the white light remained.
I felt myself slowly drawn into the opening in the side of the
craft. I wasn't walking, but yet I was moving. The feeling was
akin to a floating sensation.
     I felt beads of perspiration on my forehead, which collected
in tiny rivulets, ran down the cheeks of my face, and dripped
onto the ground as I was drawn inside the craft.
     Once inside, the light was still so overwhelming that I
could only see vague hints of something, or someone, moving. I
wasn't able to make out any definite shapes, moving or still.
     I found myself, still in a horizontal position, stretched
out on some kind of metallic-surfaced table. It didn't feel too
cold--unlike the ones in a doctor's office--but it wasn't soft by
any means.
     I was aware of soft noises, reminiscent of murmurs made by a
group of people in a closed room, as heard from an adjacent
hallway.
     "What are these beings going to do to me?" I wondered. "And,
more so, why me?"
     I was aware of an evil-looking device which seemed to
possess a chillingly grotesque malevolence - something from a
horrific science-fiction movie whose special-effects crew had
gone all-out to create it. It looked to be made of the same
material as the craft I was in, but I couldn't be sure of that.
     Several dozen appendages of what might be surgical
instruments protruded from all sides of the oblong-shaped
machine. I tried mightily to shut out thought, as I stared at the
apparatus, now making soft, whirring sounds as it descended. I
could make out a round, glass test-tube with three extremely
long, thin pin-like needles glinting coldly in the harsh light.
They were arranged in a perfect triangle, projecting  menacingly
from the bottom end of the glass tube which was coming slowly
downward toward me. From the position of the device over my body,
it seemed aimed at the lower right side of my abdomen.
     I closed my eyes, squinting them as tightly as I could in an
attempt to make the thing go away. I laid there, too afraid to
open them for fear of seeing what was about to happen to me; I
didn't want to know.
     I thought I felt something briefly touch my right side.
Then, momentarily, the right side of my head at the temple. I was
vaguely aware of something cold touching my scrotal area. My
insides were twisted into monstrous knots, and I began to
entertain the thought of death.
     After an eternity, the murmuring ceased. I continued to lie
there. Without warning, the cold, harsh white light blinked off,
leaving me in total darkness. I wasn't in any pain, or at least I
wasn't aware of any. Somehow, that seemed to be nothing short of
miraculous.
     Unable to bear the suspense any longer, I opened my eyes to
find I was looking up at innumerable points of light.
     "Stars! I see stars," I shouted joyfully, recognizing a few
of the twinkling entities as they winked at me. "Wonderful,
wonderful stars!"
     Bolting upright, I realized I must have fallen asleep in the
lawn chair, sated with food and contentment; - must have dreamed
the whole thing. I rose and started toward the house, shivering
slightly in the night chill.
     As I stepped onto the patio and reached to open the sliding
glass door with my left hand, my right hand reached beneath my
shirt tail, just above the hip joint, to scratch a small
triangular patch on my right side.
                               END