RE: The Star Explorer: The Discovery (excerpt) (Chapter 30) (ISBN 1-60813-667-1)

[Mr. Shannon Lejuan Clements]

Chapter Thirty

Captain Howard Pickleton sat at his desk enjoying his sandwich when the Captain of the Coast Guard came trooping into his office with a few armed guards behind them.

"Captain Pickleton, I am Captain Dejuan Coletrain of the U.S. Coast Guard. Remember we spoke on the phone earlier. I hear that you have apprehended the aliens and are now detaining them. Is this correct Captain?"

"Yes that is correct Captain. My men and I had a tough time bringing them in too." Captain Pickleton said waving his sandwich at the Coast Guard Captain.

He chomped into his sandwich and looked admiringly at it while he chewed.

"We specifically gave you the order to not make any kind of contact except visual. Why were my orders disobeyed?"

The captain of the police department didn't like the tone that he was being spoken to in and so he looked at captain Coletrain and said,

"For one, my men and I were jumped in the dark woods by these aliens while we were trying to establish a visual for you. Second, since they landed in my jurisdiction I am automatically compelled, by law, to establish contact. Third, I don't take orders in my jurisdiction I give them. And last of all, if we, as you would say, were disobeying orders then we would simply have put bullets into them for attacking us with their ray guns. Those guns are powerful enough to render a human being, and one of their own, unconscious. As a matter of fact those are their guns right there sitting in front of you."

Captain Coletrain coldly looked upon Captain Pickleton eating his sandwich. He wanted to take that sandwich and shove it down his throat, but he knew that would call for some serious paperwork to be filled out in the end. Instead, he picked up one of the weapons and turned it over in his hands. He noticed that it was light weight, grayish in color, box shaped, and had a glass front with two buttons on the top of it. It sort of resembled an old out of date remote control. He pointed the weapon negligently at the Captain trying hard to look like he as studying it, but try though he might he couldn't fool captain Pickleton. Upon seeing that the fazor was aimed in his direction, Captain Pickleton tried to warn him, but it was too late. Captain Coletrain pushed the button and it fired knocking Captain Pickleton onto the ground. Captain Coletrain dropped the weapon and ran to the officers' side. He then yelled out for a paramedic while secretly patting himself on the back for a job well done.

It didn't take long for the U.S. Army to arrive and take over the whole situation. They gathered the scared aliens together and shuffled them into an unmarked van. When they stepped outside, you could see all types of military vehicles surrounding the area. Troops of soldiers had set up a perimeter and stood guard while the aliens were being placed within the van. A truck with a wide load bed drove by with the covered up ship loaded onto it. Military heuweys littered the sky and a couple of news choppers hovered on the horizon. Thanks to the military, they couldn't get close enough to get a good shot at what was going on. When the aliens were finished boarding the van, all of the troops reloaded the trucks and they caravanned off of Belle Isle via the detour established by the local authorities. The news choppers tried to follow, but the military hueweys persuaded them not to.



"Sir, you have got to see this."

Private Calloway said drawing Grand Admiral Wests' attention away from what he was doing. The Channel Eleven People Watch News was showing. What he saw on it became much more interesting than the crossword puzzle that he was currently working on.

The news was showing a military convoy leaving the Belle Isle location. The camera caught a glimpse of the tow truck carrying something boomerang shaped and covered up away. Then the newscaster spoke saying,

"Tonight of all nights the military has blocked off the whole Island of Belle Isle due to what they say was a malfunctioning scale model of a new helicopter that they were test flying over the Detroit area. They claim that the turbine engine stopped working in mid flight and caused the chopper to decelerate at a high pace. The only safe place open at the time was Belle Isle and so they decided that it was best to land there on top of peoples' homes or in traffic. Funny thing is that the mysterious plane doesn't resemble a helicopter in no shape, form, or fashion. It looks like it has the shape of a giant boomerang of some sorts.

‘Now it is rumored, and I stress rumored, that there were sightings being called in over in Canada to the Canadian authorities that a boomerang shaped object could be seen flying over Ontario. They say that the whole bottom was lighted up and was moving at a very fast pace."

The news anchor then placed her hand over her ear for a moment or two as a new report silently filled her ear and then she continued reporting,

"I have just received news that the strange boomerang like object was also sighted in both Egypt and Paris. I am told that we have a few photos and they should be coming across your screen right now."

That's when Grand Admiral West did something that he hadn't done in a couple of years. He leapt up out of his seat and scrambled to the computer console to punch in his override code to the system. His fingers moved like an ants tiny legs carrying it across the ground as he typed in the commands. He patched into the news' satellite systems and cut the feed short. The last picture shown was of a bluish alien exiting the boomerang shaped ship.

"Fuck."

He cursed out loud knowing that he was too late and then quickly erased all traces of his tampering from the news computer system.

"Get me a trace on the location of that convoy now." he commanded and pushed himself away from the computer console.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and tried hard to calm his anger down.

"I wish that I had done that sooner, but now it is too late. We have to get those aliens out of there soon."

"Sir, I have got a trace on their location."

"Good, where are they?"

"They are headed down I-94 at the moment sir. I believe that they are headed to the base located just outside of Detroit. We can either head them off and fight for them or we could just wait until they reach their location and then pluck them right out of their hands. It's your choice sir."

The grand admiral thought about those two choice and decided the latter was the best way to go.

"I believe that we'll wait until they are settled in and then we can catch them by surprise. Let me know when they reach the base."

"Yes sir." The private yelled and then Grand Admiral West rose to his full height and walked out of the room.

Things were moving at a fast pace and he knew that they needed to put a rescue team together quickly. No new recruits were going on this mission. He needed all veterans for this one. Quickly he walked down the corridor and assembled his crew. He decided that it was best that he went too since there was the chance to finally establish an intergalactic ally of his own.

With that last thought running through his mind he came to a complete halt. These newcomers could not have been in contact with the government before or otherwise they would not have been doing all of that research and exploration. Hey would have known everything already. Since the government had already established communications with several alien civilizations already then they might turn the newcomers over to them. He knew that they returned every fifty years to advance this civilization further. They were not due back for another three years, but this new turn out might bring them back sooner. That's when another thought occurred to him. The giant space telescope and radio wave program might be a means of communication with them. He most definitely had to look into that thought soon. Quickly he headed down the corridor to put his team together because they had some serious work to do.