(no subject)

26.

After the plane had been in the air for about 10 minutes Mickey asked Mr. Throop, “Can we get up?”

With a disinterested and ultimately dismissive sweep of the hand Throop released the boys from their restraints.

As David was unbuckling his belt, a red presence appeared around his side, and moved up into the boy’s face.

“Whatzyurepower?” he said in a slightly threatening tone.

David looked over to his slightly smiling brother. Who shrugged his shoulders to signify they he didn’t understand what had been said.

“Huh?” David offered into the imposing face.

“I said, what is your power?” the young man with the red hair said, “I’m Jeremy Sangster from Surrey and my superhero name is going to be ‘The Spitter.’”

The McCauley boys both laughed slightly.

David asked, “The Spitter?”

Jeremy looked slightly offended, and then went on to say, “My body can take any liquid into it and convert it into something bad.”

“Spit?” Mickey said, hoping he didn’t sound as funny as he felt.

“I can spit out vinegar, or poison. I even made acid once, but it burned the outside of my lips.”

“Cool,” both boys said.

“That’s disgusting,” came an off handed huff from the girl who went back to listening to her music and staring out the window.

Mickey had a sudden hideous and yet brilliant thought.

“Any liquid you take in you can change into spit. How about . . .”

Sangster smiled evilly, “I peed bleach once. I always thought there might be a point I might do acid, but I’m scared of . . . hurting myself.”

The three boys laughed.

The girl tried to turn more of her back to them.

Position might have snickered a bit.

The rest of the trip featured the boys talking about comic books and playing cards. Until Carvine Dandoval gasped and said, “Oh my God.”

The three boys rushed to see what she was looking at out the window.

They all saw a building that looked like a crystal rocket ship rising from the midst of green jungle. It must have been 30 stories tall and easily took up a space that would have covered 5 city blocks.

Position joined them at the window.

“Thunderbase!” he said, “But we like to call it Real-balla.”

They looked up at him without understanding.

“Instead of Shamballa?”

Nothing.

“Everybody, take you seats,” Throop said.

Without a word all four men lifted six inches off the ground, moved to their seats and their belts seemed to attach themselves.

David and Mickey looked at Carvine’s smug smile as she turned back to the window, and then at each other.

“Cool,” They thought to each other.

(c) 2005 by C. Wayne Owens

The Intelligent Design People

On NPR someone just quoted one of the "Anti-Evolutionist" as saying that "Evolution is just an age old fairy tale."
The idea of a pot and a kettle come to mind.

(no subject)

27.

The landing was not like anything they had expected or ever experienced before.

Rather than finding a runway and setting down, the jet climbed almost straight up for a few seconds and then seemed to shut off their engines.

There was a gasp from the boys, and a concerned stare from everyone else who had been through this before. From their conversations before the boys knew they were the only “first timers.”

After a moment of fall the plane was bathed in a green light and stopped its descent. It felt a little like being caught in a giant hand and cradled as they slowly moved down.

The boys couldn’t see out the window or they would see the center of the peak of
Thunderbase open and envelope the plane. Rather than land, they were being dragged in and set softly down in the center of a huge room.

After they had been settled down on the ground, the light turned to an soft orange for exactly 4 seconds. Then all unnatural light left, and they were inside the complex.

Throop unbuckled his seat belt and stood. After he stood there for a bit, the panel opened and he went out without a word to anyone.

Then the McCauley’s noticed that Position was standing, gesturing for them to join him.

They heard a sound that was massive, but distant.

As the boys exited the plane, they saw how huge the complex was, and how silver everything was all around them.

The sound was coming from above, and their eyes jumped up to search the sky for it. The sky, in fact, was disappearing as the machinery in the ceiling was closing in and sealing them off. The sound was mechanical but not grinding. It was more like being inside some kind of computer/washing machine sound.

The boys noticed about 30 people working at different machines on the walkways that were now bridging the air above them. It seemed that these catwalks had been moved out of the way so the plane could enter, and now they criss-crossed the mammoth room over their heads.

Everywhere there was activity.

A small cart came and was loaded with their luggage, and the group walked beside it out of the hanger room and walked into a corridor that made the boys feel a little less little.

All Mickey could think was that this place reminded him of something from an early James Bond movie, or maybe that old TV show, what was that show?

“The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” David said, “They used to show it early in the morning on TNT.”

Everyone else in the group looked a David like he had sprouted a second nose in the middle of his face, and that made both of them laugh again.

“Oh, “ Stated Jeremy, “Yer Size!”

“Huh,” Mickey said.

“Psychics,” Mr. Position said, as if he were saying they were from Oregon or had brown hair.

“Psi’s,” Carvine explained.

“Yeah,” Said David, “That’s us.”

“Well, you’ll find out, around here Psi’s does matter,” a self entertained Mr. Position said, to no one in particular.

Mickey corrected, “Wouldn’t that be Psi’s do matter?”

There was a beat and then everyone laughed, not at Mickey but a Position’s exasperated reaction.

Then it happened.

The hallway was bathed in red and buzzers screamed.

A voice came over the loud speaker that could have been Stonedragon’s.

“The facility is under attack, please take properpositions.”

The group was led by a man in a blue jumpsuit to a large door and put in the room beyond. It looked fairly non-descript. When the adults left, the door sealed with what sounded like an air-tight lock.

Occasionally there was a feeling that made the walls vibrate a bit.

The buzzers did not stop.

All of the people in the room turned their concerned eyes to each other.

This wasn’t what any of them expected.

(c) 2005 by C. Wayne Owens