It was dark and yet I felt an urging to awaken. Looking up I saw the crate that the lantern was sitting on begin to shake slightly.
I came to full awareness then and I bailed off the cot and out of the cell, only taking the time to grab up my boots and my gun belt. I didn’t bother with the jailhouse door and it’s multitude of locks. Instead I exploded through the glass panes of the window to land on the boardwalk outside.
I rolled on toward the street and fell into the dust as the jailhouse exploded into a fireball behind me. Heat scorched over top of me and I covered my ears with my hands as the flames burned unabated.
I crawled forward and then someone was helping me up. It was Edgar and I took his hand and got up.
I made it across the street and sat down to put my boots on. Looking up it was to see that the jail was gone. A virtual crater was in its place.
Thankfully no other buildings had caught on fire and the burning boardwalk was even now being brought under control by others who’d been roused by the explosion in the night. Edgar handed me my gun belt and I strapped it on as I stood up.
I had blood on my face and arms from where they’d gotten cut up by the glass. In a bit of a dazed shock I looked at the evidence of what would’ve been my demise if I hadn’t heeded the sudden urging to come to alertness.
Glancing off to the side at the crowd that had gathered in the early morning gloom I noticed the old indian watching me. I nodded and he smiled before disappearing.
He’d saved my life again. I looked around and in sudden horror I saw that the fire before me wasn’t the only one in town!
“Oh no!” I exclaimed and took off running towards the Pastor’s house at the edge of town.
Reaching the burning blaze I saw that it was a mirror image of the jail in terms of the crater in the ground with just bits of splintered pieces of wood smoldering about on the ground. There were no words to be said by the silent throng of people ringing the debris of all that remained of a good man.
Angered at the attack in the night I turned away only to see a man approaching from the church out of the gloom of early morning.
“Pastor Lonigan!” I exclaimed rushing forward.
He gripped a hold of me firmly, “I’m glad you’re okay Taran! I had the urge to pray and I thought they might try to do another sacrifice in front of the church so I went to pray at the church late last night.”
“Thank God!” I breathed out, as I turned to glance at the crater and what little remained of the Pastor’s house.
“Indeed.” The Pastor commented dryly.
Gripping my arm then he pulled me away from the others and said, “I saw it all Taran. A spinning orb of light came out of the desert and hovered over the town. It pulsed what looked like a solid beam of lightning into the jail and then it swiveled to take out my house. I was praying in the church’s steeple up by the bell and I had a good view. It spun away and headed off in that direction.” He said pointing to the south. Before continuing with, “You can’t see it from here, because of that rise of the land, but up in the steeple I saw the craft fly up a canyon and I’m positive that it is still there. The canyon I speak of can’t be much more than a mile from here.”
I patted him on the shoulder, “You did good! I’m going to go investigate, but you should try to get some rest.” I said before hurrying off to the stable yard.
*****
I had my horse about half saddled, when another rider pulled up beside me. It was Edgar. I gave him a curious look and he said, “I heard you and the Pastor. I would like to come along and see for myself.”
“You know we might not come back, right?”
Edgar nodded.
I shrugged and said no more. Mounting up we took out of the town as the sun began to make its way over the horizon. The beauty of the sunrise was lost on me though as my mind was full of the complications of how to combat such an advanced foe.
I felt reasonably confident of not being discovered as the creatures seemed to prefer the darkness of night to move out and about in rather than broad daylight.
Reaching the canyon I pulled up and Edgar followed suit. Daylight or not I didn’t feel comfortable riding up the narrow canyon.
“Let’s circle around and find a way up this mesa so we can ride along the rim of the canyon.”
Edgar nodded and we backtracked. He led off to the right and I followed him figuring that he knew a way to get up onto the mesa that the canyon cut down through.
*****
Easing forward on our bellies we inched closer and closer to the edge of the canyon rim. The deep hum we’d been hearing for several moments only intensified the closer we got to the edge.
Reaching the edge, both of us now hatless, we peered over. Daylight revealed the metallic surfaces of the object that had been somehow cloaked from view that night at the enclosure.
I thought it had spun and perhaps it had, but right now it remained motionless as it hovered just above the ground. The question of how to defeat it was on both our minds.
We both drew back from the edge keeping our heads down. Edgar put it best, “It’s like a buzzard floating on the breeze.”
I nodded thinking. The concepts at play with the technology below us was far beyond me. Staring at the blue sky overhead I prayed for help.
A shadow crossed over me and in alarm I blinked and made to run for it, but I relaxed at the sight of a buzzard coasting by. True to Edgar’s words it did seem to just hang in the air. What if the ship below operated on the same principle, at least partly?
“What makes air thinner? You know, less buoyant.” I asked thoughtfully.
“Gas.” Edgar replied.
I glanced at him. I knew he was an educated man and his answer piqued my curiosity, “Gas?”
He nodded and then hesitatingly he said, “At least I think so.”
“Explain.”
“Well back East I saw this experiment done. I was thinking of becoming an engineer before I chose to be a doctor and I took some extra classes. Ships aren’t just built willy-nilly. There are mathematical formulas that go into the making of them or they wouldn’t float or move about right. They might even break apart or…….”
“Alright alright I get it! Get to the point!” I said in a harsh whisper brought on by the dire grimness of the situation.
Edgar sighed and said gesturing upward, “Imagine the sky above was all water with that cloud up there being a ship floating on the surface. Well I saw this professor release a burst of methane gas from a cylinder located underneath the water.”
“Methane gas?” I asked blankly.
“Yeah the stuff that gets let off in swamps and from the rear of cows.”
“Got it.”
“Well anyway this bubble of gas rose through the water because it’s lighter than water. When it reached the ship the ship sunk beneath the water all the way down to the bottom of the container. The gas made the water less buoyant. Maybe that could work with adding gas to just regular air. It’s a theory anyway.”
“A shaky one, but who knows. Where do we get this methane gas?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. I mean we don’t exactly have the time to follow a herd of cows around.”
Not being able to help it I chuckled. The gravity of the situation had me sober again rather quickly though.
“What’s that cave down there that there parked outside of? It looks like its seen active work before.”
“Oh that’s the old gold mine outlet that got the town it’s start. It’s all played out now though. It’s been vacant going on ten years now. The towns really suffered without the mine. It would’ve gone belly up if it weren’t for the outlying ranches and……”
“Mining?” I said cutting in.
He nodded.
“Are there any mining supplies still laying about the town?”
“Yeah there’s a whole warehouse of them. Whoa wait a minute, if you think you’re going to take that thing out with dynamite, I think you better think again!”
I waved his protests away, “No, no, I agree with you. That ship is way beyond dynamite, but what if we try the gas thing and see if the ship will sink and then we use the dynamite to cover it up? In essence the rock we cover it up with will replace the air it needs to float. What do you think?”
“I think that’s insane, but I’m down for trying it. There’s only one problem though. We don’t have any gas.”
“Ahh my friend I bet we do. We need to get back to town and check out that warehouse.”
We scooted back from the edge until we reached where we’d left our horses and then we lit a shuck out of there.
*****
Coughing lightly I held my hand to my face to help filter out some of the stirred up dirt from having to break down the door. There had been no choice but to break the door down as the hinges had been rusted shut.
Walking into the warehouse I could only make mental comment to the honesty of this town’s residents. The warehouse was piled high with supplies from the now defunct mine and yet the supplies had laid dormant in this warehouse untouched and unclaimed for going on ten years.
Oh there was plenty of dynamite for sure. Going to a case I cautiously peeled the lid off and looked inside. Amazingly the dynamite had not yet begun to sweat nitroglycerin.
It was good to know that the dynamite was at least still partly stable. It would be no good though if the most vital element needed for the plan wasn’t in supply.
I saw some headlamps and I hurried over to them. Angus being shorter had to run to keep up with the lantern he held high to illuminate the warehouse.
“What is it?” He asked excitedly.
I skipped by the lamps and began pulling the lid off of a box, which was one of several stacked up in the corner of the warehouse. Angus arrived with the lamp as the lid came free.
“Whoa! Not today buddy!” I said, as my hands flashed out to grasp the snake that was striking out at the paralyzed form of Angus holding the lantern nearby.
I threw the snake to the floor and stomped its head into the ground. It was one of the same brightly banded snakes that had bit me.
I looked up from the dead snake to Angus. Looking a little pale he said, “You just saved my life!”
I patted him on the shoulder, “Don’t thank me yet. I may get us all killed come nightfall.”
Angus shrugged and offered a wan smile, “I haven’t had this much fun in years. What is this stuff?”
I picked up one of the chunks in the box, “Calcium carbide. I grew up in the mountains in the East. Coal miners used this stuff in their headlamps. You combine this with water and it produces acetylene gas, which is highly flammable but controlled enough to be used in a headlamp.”
“Well I’ll be!” Edgar breathed out, as he reached into the box and pulled out a chunk.
“This could work! Do you remember that pool of water near the mouth of the canyon? If we could dump all this in the water, but then how do we get the ship to pause in flight in order to be affected by the gas cloud? I don’t know for sure, but I would be willing to bet that this won’t work if the ship is under power and moving. It needs to be hovering.”
Nodding I said, “I have an idea.”
Glancing at the large group of people who had filed into the warehouse I said, “All right we have a lot of work to get done before nightfall. I’m not going to lie to you, the plan I have in mind could get a lot of us, if not all of us dead. On the other hand I think what I have in mind could work. I need your help, but it’s your choice to come.”
Nathan shrugged and glancing around asked, “What do you need done?”
Smiling I said, “Get all the wagons in the town teamed up. Load the calcium carbide and the dynamite along with the drill steel over there leaning up against the wall. Make sure two wagons are sent to the saloon. I need several men to help me at the saloon. Be careful with the dynamite.” I said, as I hurried out of the warehouse.
Edgar caught up with me, “What on Earth is of help to us at the saloon?”
“You’ll see. Hey when there’s a moment I need to talk with you about something.”
“Sure, but what do you need at the saloon?”
“Mirrors my good man. Big long bar length mirrors.”
“What would we need those for?” Edgar exclaimed.
Slapping him on the shoulder I pushed on into the vacant saloon and said, “Why a mirror reflection. We’re not alone in our fight against this advanced enemy. Angels of God have much the same way of moving about as our foe does.”
“How do you know that?”
“Nevermind.”
“These angels are going to help us?”
“Doubt it, but the enemy doesn’t know that.” I said good humoredly.
“I don’t understand!”
“You will. Now help me get these mirrors down. Time is wasting.”
“What makes you think these beings aren’t going to be onto us doing all this work at the mouth of the canyon?”
“Two reasons. Most of their activities seems to occur at night and two I’d say they spend most of their day mining the left over gold out of that defunct mine of yours.”
“Really? You really think there could still be gold!”
“Yes, now less talk and more work.”
*****
Work went better than expected with almost the whole town helping out and the upshot of it was that we now had some time to kill. The sun wouldn’t set for at least another two hours.
Both Edgar and I had crept back to where we had seen the alien vessel hovering in the narrow canyon. It had still been there and that fact verified we had eased back from the canyon rim to wait for sundown.
In a low voice I asked, “Edgar when I first got here there was something about me surviving that snakebite that troubled you. What was it?”
“Not troubled, intrigued is a better word.”
I decided to go all in and confessing softly I said, “I’ve been led to believe recently that my origins lead to places not from this world. Does that make any sense?”
“It certainly does.” Edgar affirmed.
I glanced at him and he explained, “As I told you before that snake that bit you exists nowhere else other than this immediate area. Do you know what an elephant is?”
I nodded and he continued, “Well by my nearest calculations of the potency of a single bite from that snake I’d say even an elephant would succumb to a bite.”
“You’re saying I’m not human?”
“Not at all. There are plenty of venoms, diseases, and you name it that generally always kill their victims, but there are those few who survive. Those few survivors mate and share their immunities with the next generation and then you see immunity in the next generation after that. Given enough time almost everyone comes to have immunity to something that once killed almost everyone. Look at Europe for instance. The black plague virtually wiped the population out, but those who survived are now for the most part immune to it. My theory about these snakes, especially now that I see all that’s happened in the past few days, is that they came from somewhere else. I’m not referring to somewhere else in the world either. It’s possible that ancestors of yours came from the same place off world where these snakes live, and thus had a built up immunity to the venom.”
Shaking my head I said, “I know I was born in the mountains of East Tennessee. As a boy my great grandfather was yet alive. We were all born in the mountains, not some other world.”
“No doubt you were, which would explain through the length of generations away from the exposure to the venom of that snake why you almost died from it. The more time that goes by the less resistance there seems to be to things not exposed to in a long time.”
I shook my head still finding it all hard to believe, but the facts were what they were.
“Your name is of great interest and I believe a clue to the off world past your ancestors experienced.”
Looking at him I asked, “Taran?”
“No, your last name of Collins. Collins and another name, that of Gibson, along with a half-dozen others form an Appalachian bloodline of some note. Ever look at yourself in the mirror Taran?”
“Of course I have!”
“Well then I bet you’ve noticed that while you’re white enough to be thought of as European your features are somewhat darker and more exotic than the typical individual of European descent.”
“It’s said that there was some intermarrying with people of black skin color early on in our family and I think my grandmother was part Cherokee.”
“All probably so, but your ancestry is even more complex than that. Feel at the very back of your head.”
I did so and felt a protrusion of bone off the back of my skull that formed a sort of round nodule. I’d known I’d had it, but never really thought twice about it.
“What you’re feeling my friend is referred to as an Anatolian Bump. The more scientific name for it is Tuberculum Turcum. Anatolia is the region in the Middle East where the Turks of the Ottoman Empire came from. Their people group it’s said migrated there from Central Asia. Now the question you have to ask yourself Taran is how did a man, who comes from the mountains of Appalachia, come to possess so many diverse traits from peoples all over the world, but in all the history of your family I doubt there have been few who have actually married outside of the mountain families of the surrounding communities much less left the area as you have done.”
I had no answer for him. Going on he said, “Melungeon is the name for the unique bloodline of your family and of the others I mentioned. The meaning of the word is hard to come by as it finds elements potentially derived from the languages of at least five different people groups, which would be West African, Turkish, European, Asian, and even Jews. It’s a mystery Taran. What’s even more interesting is that there is old folk lore in the mountains of Appalachia that there were white men existing in the mountains before the first colonists came over from Europe. As colonists kept making their way westward they kept running into communities in the mountains that they couldn’t place the date of origin to. There’s little to be conclusively said as it’s all been poorly documented, but the stories do remain. I’m sure you’ve heard a few of them.”
I had. I looked toward the edge of the canyon still hearing the humming of the alien vessel. Looking back to Edgar I asked, “What do you think happened?”
Edgar shrugged, “Pastor told me about your vision, well not exactly, I had to beg the story out of him. What if there are other worlds out there such as you saw? With the kind of technology back there in the canyon on display I don’t see it as an impossibility for such vessels to be able to travel between worlds. We know these creatures from the time before the creation of man obviously hate us. What if some time in the past they took slaves of this world to serve them on worlds outside of the dominion of the authority that God gave to man to possess and rule over this world? On such foreign worlds with relocated people gathered from all over the Earth the resulting mating of them would’ve resulted in blended features the likes of which you exhibit. For such a blended people to reappear on Earth in an unlikely spot it would seem to echo of some past strife off-world. Perhaps your great ancestors escaped and were able to make their way back at some point. They settled in the mountains and have been blending in with the rest of humanity ever since. It’s a plausible theory anyway given all the facts and circumstantial evidence to support it.”
I nodded. What more was to be said?
Had my ancestors really overcome such obstacles as these beings in the canyon below us in order to return to Earth?
It seemed like more than just a plausible theory to me as I mentally took in the unique looks of my family’s appearances in comparison to people away from the cloistered mountain community I had been raised in. My great-grandfather’s skin had been very dark. Since his time most of my family had married lighter skinned European women and the tone of our family’s skin had lightened considerably from what his had been.
More than that were some of the stories I had been told as a child, stories about fantastical lands and the monsters that dwelled in them. Stories that didn’t fit into the reality of Earth, at least not for a very long time.
I remembered my great-grandfather singing once in the forest in a language I couldn’t understand. It hadn’t been Cherokee or any European language and certainly not the backwoods English that we’d spoken almost exclusively. He had been an intense individual. Most of my family were.
Above all as a family we craved the right to be free to do as we pleased. That was something I strived to maintain to this day and it had gotten me into a lot of fights.
I stared upwards into the darkening sky overhead that stars were already faintly starting to appear in. Did I have a legacy that had come from up there somewhere in the distant past?
Did I have a destiny to return?
Glancing at the sun now low on the horizon I touched Edgar’s sleeve and said, “Let’s go and get this party started.”