Warp Drive Patent Pending Read online

  WARP DRIVE, Patent Pending

  Published By Douglas W. Daech

  Copyright 2014 Douglas Daech

  ***

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  ***

  Disclaimer

  This E-book is a work of fiction. Coincidental similarities to actual people may occur, but any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely chance. Some events described herein may have actually happened, or should have happened. On occasion the author has taken certain, small, liberties with facts, chronology, names, appearance, age, location, or other truths because that is his right as a fiction writer.

  Warp Drive, Patent Pending

  By Douglas W. Daech

  Published By Douglas W. Daech

  Copyright 2016 Douglas W. Daech

  ***

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  ***

  Disclaimer

  This E-book is a work of fiction. Coincidental similarities to actual people may occur, but any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely chance. Some events described herein may have actually happened, or should have happened. On occasion the author has taken certain, small, liberties with facts, chronology, appearance, names, age, location, or other truths because that is his right as a fiction writer.

  ***

  Prolog

  Discovery

  She looked up at him with her big brown eyes. They were sad eyes. It looked like she knew that she had done wrong and she should never have left the others. From his point of view above her he could see her moving away from him, still trying to escape. His name was Samuel. He was twenty seven years old, tall, tanned and fit. He was well muscled from long hours of hard work. Sweat glistened on his forehead from the heat. He circled around her side to drive her back toward the others. She hesitated slightly but followed alongside, slowly rejoining the sixty other animals of the cattle drive.

  The sun was high in the mid day sky. It was as hot, as a summer day could be. A cool breeze came out of nowhere occasionally and brushed his face. It was like a surprise kiss from Mother Nature. The area of the ranch that they were in was close to the roughest and toughest terrain that the Glass family owned. There were some pasturelands around the few streams that flowed during the rainy season, but during the dry months, it was the desert. Any further west or south and the land would be too barren to support any kind of a herd. The Glass family owned hundreds of acres that did nothing but bake in the sun.

  He had been working for the Glass family for over three years now. He was what some people called a Waddie or an all around cowhand. He did a little bit of everything. He was a good rider. He could rope a steer and tie a calf pretty quick. He knew how to shoot, brand, shoe and drive a herd. He grew up on his own family’s ranch, but it had been sold to the Glass family. They were taking up land and offering fair prices. His folks happily retired to the city, but he chose to stay behind. He didn’t know how to do anything else but ranch. He had a good position on the Ranch and loved the work. The Glass family was good to him too. They paid him well and respected his skills.

  Samuel was one of ten cowboys moving this sixty head from the rough land on the dry east side of the ranch to the grassy pastures of the northern flats. He was the Hawk in the drive. It was his job to circle the herd, and other riders, keeping the animals in a tight group. Occasionally he had to rush off and collect a straggler or a slow animal. The two lead riders kept the herd moving in the right direction. The lead steers were moving pretty quick that day, and everyone was busy. His mare, Chisholm, was performing well, responding with quickness and confidence in her work. She was named after the old John Wayne movie. He was fond of the American cowboy image and even carried an antique revolver to complete that look. There were additional riders flanking the herd and two more at the rear. They were the drag riders. It was their job to keep the slower cattle moving. All of the team had ridden together before and were fine horsemen, animal handlers, and friends.

  It was the second day of a six-day drive. Ahead of the herd was a rusty Landrover pulling a supply trailer. The two camp-hands in the truck would pull ahead to a predetermined location and set up a camp for overnight stops. When the cowboys arrived with the herd, they would have a place to rest and chow waiting. Everyone had a job, and teamwork was the key to a good drive.

  Samuel rejoined the others and circled the herd keeping the animals close and on common ground. They were passing a rocky outcrop to their left. Several jagged stones jutted high out of the dusty earth at parallel angels and offered a bit of shade to the riders. As they passed the rocks, the leaders veered the herd to the right. Most of the animals followed, but a couple shagged off, and Samuel rounded to correct the stragglers. He was busy handling his horse and watching the disagreeable cattle while fighting the sun in his eyes. The brim of his hat shaded his eyes but limited his views of his surroundings. He wasn’t sure what he saw as he rounded up the cattle, but something caught his attention from behind the rocky outcrop. Something was back there. From the corner of his eye, he saw something man-made that stood out from the landscape. His attention was drawn there for a second, but his work pulled him back from the oddity. A few seconds later he was again with the herd and moving away from the rocky outcrop. At first, it didn’t bother him, but the more he thought about it, the more he wondered what it was.

  Not long after that, the cattle drive came upon their campsite and chow wagon. A line of tents were set up, and meat sizzled on a large three-legged grill set over an open campfire. The hungry men could smell the jerk spices that flavored the beef even before they saw the grill. They knew a good meal would be waiting for them.

  The rocky outcrop could still be seen in the distance as a small shape on the horizon. Samuel kept looking back to the distant rock and wondered what he had seen. Nothing manmade should have been back there, but he was sure he had seen something.

  The cattle had moved at a good pace that day, and there was still an hour or two of daylight left. He told his mates he needed to go check something and headed away from camp. It would have been smarter for him to dismount and rest. He would have to work later that night keeping the herd together while some of the others in the camp slept. But the question of what he saw kept nagging at him.

  He rode at a good pace for less than an hour and was back to the outcrop. The sun was setting, but it was above the horizon and still daylight enough to see. He rounded the rocky formation and walked Chisholm around to where he had thought he had seen something. He dismounted. His gun slapped his thigh as he grounded himself. He had only used it for target practice before, but it was there if he needed it against snakes or Dingos. He knew that Pure Dingos were in the area and they would on occasion pack hunt animals larger than themselves. He’d heard of one such attack on a cowboy that didn’t end well.

  Chisholm followed his steps as Samuel walked along the jutted wall of rock inspecting for tracks or anything that may have seemed out of place, but everything seemed to be normal. He guessed that he was imagini
ng things and had let his curiosity get the best of him. Samuel was about to remount when Chisholm reared back, spooked, out of character. He patted her on the side and tried to calm her with his voice in a relaxed manner. Chisholm backed and turned away from him, agitated. He gave her some distance, holding her reigns and walked with her. A few steps were all she needed and calmed again. She was a good horse, and he wondered what had riled her.

  There was the noise of falling rocks from behind him. Now he was spooked. He spun around quickly. At first, he didn’t see it, but a second later he saw a figure hiding in the rocks above him. He thought it was a man at first, but second-guessed when he looked at its face. It shifted to hide, but it was too late. Its build and form were that of a man, but its face was not. Samuel may have been a cowboy, but he knew an alien when he saw one.

  He had seen drawings and heard stories of big headed aliens with large black eyes enough times to know what he saw. This alien was dressed in a sand-colored jumpsuit and almost blended into the rocky ledge near where it was hiding. It’s gray face watched him, those big eyes not showing any hint of the fear that Samuel felt. The alien was above him about six feet, but not more than twelve feet distant. He dropped his hold on Chisholm, who trotted away to a horse’s safe distance. The two strangers were left locked eye to eye, unsure what to do.

  It happened too fast to think about. At one moment they were checking each other out and at the next moment the alien had a weapon pointed at him, at least he thought it was a weapon. It was a silver rod or pipe about an inch in diameter and a foot long. It had a grip on one side and the end it was pointing at Samuel had a glowing green end. The ray-gun, or whatever it was, had come out of nowhere.

  Samuel was not a gunslinger. He was not a quick draw artist or perfect shot, but with an instinctive response and surprising skill he drew his Colt and fired once. The shot echoed off the rocky outcrop and rolled into the distant landscape. The bullet entered the alien’s skull just above the eyes. The grey-faced creature stiffened. Its black eyes looked down at him in horror, anger or fear, perhaps all three. It leaned forward and fell to the sandy earth between them. Perhaps a little in shock, the acrid black powder in the air attacked his senses and brought him to some reality of what just happened. He slipped the Colt back into its holster.

  Samuel had heard stories of UFOs before. He had never seen one himself, but he had read about sightings. He remembered a story from Melbourne where a ship landed near a school. Two hundred students watched it land in a nearby field. It sat in the grass for a while then took off again. There had been other stories too. He’d seen photos of saucer nests of crushed grass where they’d been said to have landed. He believed they existed, but he never expected to see one.

  But, before him now a black saucer was quickly sweeping toward the rocks. He stepped back away from the death scene reaching blindly behind for the reigns to Chisholm, but not taking his eyes off the craft. It stopped aside the rocky outcrop and dropped nearly to the ground.

  About the time his flailing arm found Chisholm’s reigns, a hatch opened on the craft, and another creature burst out onto the ground. This alien was smaller, and Samuel thought more female looking than the first. Could they have been a couple, he wondered? At this point, he didn’t fear for his own life. He saw the new arrival was posing no threat to him. It bounded to its fallen friend, and Samuel watched as the smaller creature tried to help it, but there could be no rescue. His shot was a kill shot.

  The second alien knelt aside the body, holding it and although Samuel couldn’t be sure he thought it may have been crying. The smaller creature caressed the cheek of its partner. It looked up, and Samuel could somehow feel the anguish and pain the alien was feeling in those huge black eyes. He was sure it was crying, but what worried him was that he knew when it finished crying it would be angry.

  He didn’t take any time to think. He didn’t plan his next move or piece together what might result from his actions. He knew he couldn’t hesitate so sprang to action. His rope was hung over the horn of his saddle, and in less than three seconds he had the lasso looping through the air. It fell perfectly over the kneeling alien. Surprised, it dropped its friend and tried to escape the lasso being tightened around its arms and body. But there was not much it could do against the trained calf roper. It wouldn’t have been a rodeo record time, but Samuel had the alien tied before it knew what was happening.

  Samuel didn’t go back to the camp where the cattle drive was resting. They would head northeast in the morning. They were going in the wrong direction. In three or four days they would be in range of the main house where the Glass’s lived, but that was too long. Samuel knew that in only a half days ride in the other direction was an outpost that had electricity and a telephone. He had to get word back to his boss of what happened. He had killed one. The Glass family would know what to do.

  Old Man Glass

  Glass senior was always called the old man. It wasn’t because he was over the hill, but because it was the easiest way to point him out. There were three generations of Glass men alive, and each of them carried some clout in the family business. Each of them managed some aspect of the farm, factory or family. But, the old man was the real boss of the family. Samuel wasn’t surprised to see him. His son Dan, and grandson, Little Danny, were also with him.

  The middle son, Dan, managed the ranch. He was the most down to earth man Samuel had ever met. He was expanding the cattle ranch and making the Glass Ranch a major beef supplier to the world. He already had the respect of the Australian market.

  Little Danny managed the industrial and factory end of the Glass Empire. Samuel knew that the Glass family was involved in the manufacture of bucket seats for aircraft. He figured it was a natural spin-off from the leather trade in the cattle business. But, he didn’t know for sure. He was told that when the old man returned from the Great War he told stories of mechanical marvels he had seen while abroad. Opportunities for business and profit were everywhere. It was an industrial revolution in most other countries, but in the outback of Australia, things moved a little slower. It took years for the little side industry to grow, and Dan was too busy with the ranch to be involved. He let his own son, Little Danny try to make something of it.

  Lately, Samuel had been told that the Old Man and Little Danny were wasting the family fortune trying to expand into things they knew nothing about. They had been constructing several metal buildings and were trying to enter into the manufacture of other aircraft components. They were convinced it would be profitable, but the middle Glass, the rancher, disagreed.

  A small plane landed in the open field alongside the cabin that Samuel had retreated to. The old man and little Danny were pulling the plane to a stop when a Landrover full of cowhands arrived with Dan, his ranch boss. A couple of the hands went directly to the barn and started to saddle up some horses that were in the corral.

  “How far north is the drive?” Dan asked, always right to the point and all business.

  “About a half day now,” Samuel answered. He was sure he had done the right thing by calling them and not rejoining the drive, but his boss seemed angered.

  “They should be heading out from about an hour east of the rocky point where I saw the thing,” Samuel added.

  His boss looked deep into his eyes. “I’m not sure what you got yourself into, but I’ll stand behind you, whoever you shot. They were trespassing, and you were threatened. That’s all that matters.”

  Samuel was about to explain it wasn’t human, but Dan didn’t want to hear it. Before he could get a word in on his own defense, the two cowhands had returned with some horses. He said they were joining the drive and left with only the additional instruction to keep close to the Old Man.

  Before the sun was an hour above the horizon, he was leading them to the scene of the shooting. He was on Chisholm and the others had mounted horses that were kept in the barn. An outback hand, or Rosin Jaw, had been boarding the ten horses and keeping an eye on the back
fifty as they called that deserted edge of the ranch. He waved as they left. He was left alone again at the on the edge of nowhere. It was desolate, lonely country.

  By midday, they arrived at the rocky outcrop. As they rounded the rocks to approach the shooting location, all of them gasped at the scene before them. Samuel had it in his mind that everything would be as he had left it, but things had changed. The struggle of the smaller alien, who was roped up and tied hands to ankles, was evident in the marks on the sand. It had fought against its bonding and struggled to free itself. The scrambling marks in the sand hinted of efforts to get to the saucer-like craft. Its efforts were unsuccessful. The tied up body was slumped against the rock wall ten feet from the alien with the head wound.

  The old man checked out the shot alien first and then inspected the alien that was bound up. Both were dead. The overnight exposure followed by the morning sun appeared to have killed the second one, they guessed. The gray skin of the aliens had a pinkish tone to it now.

  “What are we going to do?” Samuel asked

  The old man looked down at the dead figures around him, rubbed his chin unsure what to say. Little Dan was standing by the craft. He had been inspecting it and looking through the open hatch as his grandfather checked out the aliens.

  “I think it’s a good thing they are dead,” Little Dan said. “Look what they left us.”

  The grandfather looked up, paying real attention to the craft for the first time. He walked around it, looked beneath it and noted it was floating above the ground.

  “I don’t know, Dan. It’s a really strange predicament we’re in here.” They were standing face to face and only spoke a few words as they discussed possibilities, but both of the businessmen knew what the outcome would be.

  “I’ll leave it to you, Danny boy,” the old man finally agreed. “You run the business. But you are walking a thin line if word ever gets out,” he added.