Danilo Clementoni
The Writer

Pasadena, California – The News

"And now, what are we going to do with this little trinket?" asked the thin, lean one, as he climbed into the driver’s seat of a brand new, bright red, Chevrolet Corvette.

"Are you talking about the car or the alien thing?" asked his chubby crony as, with great difficulty, he also tried to get into the fast sports car.

"I was talking about the remote-control, although I still haven’t understood why you decided to buy a car like this, seeing as you can't even get into it."

"I’d say you’re also in a little difficulty, my dear tall, thin lamp post."

"Precisely. Couldn’t we have got something a little more comfortable for both of us?"

"When you put your foot down on the accelerator of this beast, the reason will be clear immediately," and after slamming the door a little too violently, he added, "Come on, let’s go."

"Go where?"

"Let’s go back to base. I want to analyse the data our nerd friend gave us carefully and discover all the secrets of this bit of alien kit."

"Now you’re not going to tell me, you know more than him. The guy seemed very knowledgeable to me."

"I have to say the boy did an excellent job, but I’ve also done my research."

"What are you talking about?" asked the thin guy, perplexed.

"What do you think I’ve been doing every night for the last month, in front of the computer, while you snored like a bear in hibernation?"

"Looked at porn sites?"

"Where oh where did I find you? I often wonder that of late, you know?"

"It’s fate that united us,” replied the thin guy as he floored the accelerator, and the Corvette leapt forward leaving two black tyre marks on the tarmac.

"Hey, slow down," yelled the fat guy, as he was thrown back against the seat by the sudden acceleration. "You’d better not destroy it immediately. I’ve only paid the first two instalments."

"Wow," exclaimed the skinny guy. "It goes like a missile. This little gem is a real beast."

"I knew you’d like it. But now, try not to run that little old lady over," said the big guy, indicating a frail lady who was slowly crossing the road. "Let’s try and let her enjoy a little more of her pension."

"Don't worry my friend. You’re in good hands," answered the guy at the wheel while, with an abrupt manoeuvre, he narrowly missed the little old woman.

“Yeah right,” exclaimed the big guy. "You almost tore the clothes off her back." Then he turned around and seeing the old lady who, shaking her handbag, was shouting all sorts of things at him, added "Another series of insults like that and it’ll be you who won’t be enjoying your pension," and he broke out into a peal of laughter.

"Leave it. I’m not superstitious."

"You should be. What if she practices voodoo? You might find yourself jumping around like a cricket while the old woman sticks pins in the butt of the little doll that represents you."

"Will you just stop all this load of bollocks and instead tell me what we’re going to do with that thing?"

“Okay, okay. Don’t get worked up. I was just kidding, no?" The burly guy placed the alien object on the palm of his left hand again and said, "The nerd might well know a lot of people but, I can assure you, I used channels for my research which he certainly hasn’t had the possibility to access."

"Sometimes you scare me."

"Do you want to see something?"

"Well, it depends what."

"In the various files that I had the opportunity of consulting regarding this alien technology, I discovered that this little object, as well as blowing up spaceships, can do a lot of other things that are just as nice."

"But are you sure it really has worked?" asked the guy at the wheel, as he took a bend at full speed, slamming the passenger against the door.

"Hey, can you just slow down? That’s all we need, the police chasing us and arresting us again."

"I’ve had an idea," said the thin guy. "Turn the radio on."

"Do you think this is the time to start listening to little songs?"

"No, of course not, you idiot. Put the news on."

Although somewhat dubious, the fat guy decided not to ask any more questions and, having put the radio on, began to scroll through the various stations until he found one that was transmitting world news.

“After breaking into the central bank, the four criminals with masked faces, holding guns and automatic rifles, ordered the employees to fill the bags with cash. The entire operation lasted a little less than five minutes. When the police arrived, the robbers had already got away. Checkpoints have been set up on all routes into the city."

"What do we care about this stuff?" asked the fat guy, more perplexed than ever.

"Patience my friend, patience."

“And now let’s return to our headline news. There appear to be some interesting updates. Let’s go over to our Washington correspondent, Fred Salomon."

“Thanks Lisa. I’m in the conference room at the White House where the President has just arrived and is about to release an official statement. Let’s listen to him live.”

A few moments of silence followed and then the unmistakable voice of the President of the United States of America came through the Corvette’s powerful speakers.

“Ladies and gentlemen, first of all thank you for joining us today. Unfortunately, the news I have just received is not at all reassuring. It seems that the unusual flash, seen almost an hour ago on the moon, was indeed caused by a huge explosion and that it did in fact involve the spacecraft of our alien friends. We still do not know if they managed to escape. A further announcement will follow as soon as we have more news in this regard. Thank you.”

"For crying out loud!" exclaimed the fat guy shocked. "So, we really did blow it up."

"Aren’t you pleased? When we were with the nerd it seemed to be the most important thing in the world to you."

“Well, yes.... of course, ... But, now, deep down, I’m a little sorry."

“Incredible... I’d never have thought there was a heart under all that fat."

"Oh, leave off with all this crap," said the big guy with a contrite air. "Put your foot down and let's get back to base."

Planet Kerion – The tragic discovery

"The (|) container has just left the intercommunication tunnel,” announced the tiny Kerian in charge of coordinating manoeuvres. "It will reach the docking point in 0.1 cens."

"I want it brought here immediately to check its contents and analyse the memorised data,” Supervisor RTY ordered his subordinate.

The strange egg-shaped object, from almost sixty-five light years away, had been intercepted by a sort of containment field that grabbed it out of the planet’s orbit and quickly dragged it down in the direction of a large opening in the immense, completely metallic structure, that stretched for nearly two hundred square kilometres along Kerion’s equator.

"Container (|) almost in position," said the coordinator.

"Hurry up and get it brought here," shouted RTY. "We absolutely must find out what happened on /\".

As soon as the casing reached the docking point it was immediately taken into custody by two Kerians with decidedly unusual shapes. One was very similar to a sort of trailer without wheels, while the other was more comparable to a huge crab with six claws. The crab gently grabbed the container and deposited it inside the Kerian/trailer which, after receiving confirmation it had been successfully loaded, without a single sound, set off at an incredible speed in the direction of the laboratories.

"Container (|) has arrived," exclaimed the coordinator. "Inspection team, carry out a full analysis of the content."

Four Kerians, also of somewhat bizarre shape, rushed over to the object and, after immersing it in a small docking area containing an ammonia-based solution, began scanning it internally. Only a few minutes had passed when the smallest Kerian of the four announced, "Nine-hundred and ninety souls present, all in perfect condition. I am sending the log of the events recorded by the capsule to the central system."

"On screen,” ordered RTY peremptorily.

The images showed the surface of the moon rapidly moving away while a large, perfectly spherical object approached the area of underground laboratory /\. After a few moments, a blinding glare almost saturated the footage and immediately afterwards, there was nothing. The whole area was as if it had been hit by a giant hammer. The images showed only a huge flat area of lunar soil, incredibly smooth and polished. The recording continued for some instants showing the satellite increasingly distant, then it was interrupted.

"The laboratory," exclaimed RTY amazed. "It was completely destroyed."

"There’s nothing else," commented the coordinator bitterly. "The recording is finished."

"This is a brazen and deliberate attack on our outpost. I knew we shouldn’t have trusted that alien species."

"Do you think that spherical weapon was built by them?"

"There are only two inhabited planets in that solar system and there are beings of that species on both. We should not have established our base there."

"It’s an appalling tragedy," said the Kerian coordinator sadly. “There were almost ten million souls in the laboratory ready to be transferred. Only the nine-hundred and ninety that managed to escape the disaster through capsule (|) were saved."

"I still can't believe it," exclaimed RTY astonished. "We must immediately notify the Supreme TYK."

Tell-el-Mukayyar – The footage

Petri and his three other friends had meanwhile moved inside Dr. Hunter’s laboratory tent.

"Now I really am curious," said Azakis nervously. "I really want to see what didn’t work on your hook system."

"No, my dear friend. You’ll see that things are slightly different," answered Petri as he made a three-dimensional hologram appear, about half a meter off the ground.

"This thing you do always amazes me," exclaimed Jack as he observed the images that were forming right in the middle of the tent.

"Now I’ll go back a little," said Petri as he busied himself with a strange instrument and the scenes were reproduced the other way around. "This is the moment when we took General Campbell, Senator Preston and those two funny characters that attacked us when we were trying to retrieve the cargo, back to Area 51."

“Yes, yes. I remember that very well," commented Azakis.

"Now I’ll show you something," and the hologram showed the fat guy approaching Azakis threateningly, then giving him a light shove with his shoulder.

"He thought he could frighten me," said the Alien captain. "He didn’t move me even one millimetre. But what’s this got to do with the loss of the remote control?"

“Wait a minute. Let me just enlarge this detail... What you’re seeing is the fat man’s hand as, with great skill, he slips the device off your belt."

"Incredible," exclaimed the Colonel. "A manoeuvre worthy of the best pickpockets who prowl around on the underground."

"With the excuse of giving you a shove he took the opportunity to steal your remote control," added Elisa. "It’s an old technique that shoplifters hand down from generation to generation."

"He stole it from me?" asked Azakis astonished.

"Precisely, old chap," confirmed Petri.

"And how on earth did he reactivate it and run the self-destruct command? You had even disabled it completely if I’m not mistaken?"

"Yes Zak. The device had been deactivated. Probably, after they were freed, he and his crony must have started searching amongst the countless information we left the terrestrials and found the way to get around the blocking system."

"Those two destroyed our spacecraft and prevented us from returning home,” blurted out Azakis, angrier than he’d ever been before. "When I get my hands on them, I’ll make them sorry they ever came into this world, I promise."

"Calm down my friend. What’s done is done now. We can’t do anything anymore. Instead, what we should do, is track down those two lowlifes and get back what they stole from us before they also discover its other functions."

"Why, what else does it do?" asked Elisa intrigued.

"Never mind for the time being. It’s best you don’t know."

"Blimey, so many secrets," replied the doctor a little upset.

"Certainly, if they’ve managed to find out how to activate the self-destruct, they might also discover the rest," said Azakis worried.

"But shouldn’t you be thinking about a way to get back home first?" asked the Colonel. "This doesn’t seem such an urgent matter to me."

"You're right Jack, but that thing, in the wrong hands, could be very dangerous."

"And those are definitely the wrong hands," added Elisa.

"There may just be a way," said Petri almost in a whisper.

"Well? Talk? Do I have to get down on my knees and beg you?" exclaimed Azakis annoyed.

"That device is equipped with a special power supply system. If we were still on the Theos I could make a device that would be able to identify the trail of emissions it leaves behind."

"And you’ve only just remembered that?" Azakis was decidedly angry. "Couldn't you have done it as soon as we found out it had disappeared?"

"I’m sorry but this search system only works if the object is in motion and we’d taken it for granted that you’d dropped it somewhere."

"Now calm down boys," said the Colonel, reinforcing his words with sweeping hand gestures. "Anyway, from what I’ve understood, you can’t do anything without the Theos, right?"

"Well, perhaps I could organise something, all the same," said Petri scratching his head.

"Forgive the outburst, my friend," said the Captain contritely. "I know it’s not your fault. This really is a bad time for both of us." Then, laying a hand on his shoulder, he added, "See what you can do. I think it’s very important to retrieve that object as soon as possible."

"Don't worry Zak. It’s not a problem. I’ll try to think of something, making do with the few things we have left."

"Only you can do that. We’re in your hands."

"I’m off,” and, without saying any more, the Expert left the laboratory tent leaving behind only a few small clouds of dust.

"Will he manage to do it?" asked Jack hesitantly.

“Of course. I don’t have any doubts whatsoever. Petri has incredible skills. More than once I’ve seen him make things that not even a team of the best Craftsmen would have been able to do. He’s an exceptional person. I’m sorry I was a little too rude to him. I’m incredibly fond of him and I’d willingly give my life for him at any moment."

"Don’t worry Zak," said Elisa in a very sweet little voice. "He’s well aware of that. It’s a difficult time, but we’ll get through it without problems. I don’t have any doubts whatsoever."

“Thank you, Elisa. I really hope so with all my heart."

Pasadena, California – The hideout

As soon as he opened the door, the decidedly overweight man was hit by a pleasant blast of fresh air. The room’s air conditioner, left running since the previous evening, had done an excellent job.

"That’s wonderful," he exclaimed. "I couldn’t stand that suffocating heat any longer."

"Perhaps if you decided to go on a serious diet and got rid of all that fat you’re carrying around; the heat wouldn’t bother you so much."

“Why are you always so negative about my reserves?"

"Call them reserves. You could safely spend an entire month without eating," exclaimed the thin guy, breaking into a peal of laughter immediately afterwards.

"I’ll pretend not to have heard that."

The décor in the small apartment that the two were using as a base was decidedly spartan. In the main room there was only a simple, light-coloured wooden table with four chairs of the same colour and a heavy dark grey sofa with worn seats and armrests. In the corner near the French window that looked out onto a dismal inner courtyard, a brown plastic pot contained the remains of a small Washingtonia filifera that despite its great resistance to dry climates, had died several weeks earlier due to lack of water. The tiny bathroom also showed evident signs of neglect. Several tiles had fallen off and large dark spots on the discoloured ceiling were evidence of unrepaired water infiltration. Two shabby bedrooms, each with a single bed and a cheap bedside table, together with a kitchenette with a cabinet that was at least twenty years old, completed the furnishings of that anything but pleasant apartment.

"Well one thing’s sure, in terms of taste in the choice of our hideouts, you really are great, huh?" commented the tall skinny guy.

"Why? What’s wrong with this place?"

"It’s a dump. That’s what’s wrong. Here we are always talking about making loads of money but, in the end, we always end up in these damned dumps."

"Oh, you're always complaining," replied the big one. "Let’s try and clinch this deal then you’ll see, we’ll be able to settle down once and for all."

"If you say so.... I’m not all that convinced really."

"Come on, pass me the laptop and I’ll show you something."

The thin guy pulled a black bag with a shoulder strap out from behind the sofa and took out a dark grey notebook. He looked at it for a moment then passed it to his crony who placed it on the table and turned it on. They both sat still for a while, looking at the screen as the system completed its start-up procedure until, at a certain point, the thin guy blurted out, "I can’t stand these things any longer. I spend hours watching progress bars, hourglasses spinning, miscellaneous updates... Why can’t they just make a computer that works like a television? Press the button and it turns on."

"Yeah, that really would be nice. Instead, what I hate most, is when you’ve finished using it and want to turn it off to go home, it presents you with a nice little message that says "Do not turn computer off. Installing update 1 of 325..." and you have to wait half an hour while it does what it wants. I mean couldn’t it just do its stupid updates earlier? Must it really wait for me to be ready to leave?"

"Huh, that’s ‘IT’ for you. The programmers who design these systems probably enjoy seeing us poor mortals as we become more and more irritated when faced with their ‘creations’."

"Are you saying they do it on purpose?"

"If you think that nowadays, just to write a letter, we need a computer with a processing power billions of times larger than the Apollo missions used to send a man to the moon, I suppose something must have gone badly wrong in technological progress."

"Well, you're the expert," commented the thin guy. "For sure, they make us waste a lot of time, but we wouldn’t even be able to go to the loo without these gadgets now."

"Let’s just leave it at that shall we, it’s better. Look instead at what I’ve discovered during my sleepless nights."

The overweight man pulled a series of images up on the screen that he must have taken from some archive that wasn’t exactly public. He scrolled through a few then he said "Here we are. I think what you're seeing are a series of combinations of cuneiform characters, that are able to activate additional functions on this little device."

"And where did you get those?" asked the thin guy in amazement.

"If I were to tell you, then I’d have to kill you," answered the big guy with a very serious air.

For a moment, the tall thin guy remained as if paralysed, then he realised that his crony had obviously made a wisecrack and, after clouting him, exclaimed "What an idiot. Come on, let me see this ineffable discovery."

"Wait, first let me see what the nerd gave us," and he plugged the USB stick they’d extorted from the boy into the PC. He rapidly scanned through a series of files, occasionally opening one at random, until his attention fell on an image he’d already seen. "Look at this," he exclaimed.

“What is it?”

"It’s a character sequence I know."

"I don’t understand."

"You really are a dotard. This is the combination that activated the self-destruct command of the spacecraft and I’m sure I’ve already seen it in my personal research."

To avoid being reproached again, the skinny guy just mumbled something.

"Here it is," said the big guy again, showing the same series of images they had been looking at before, but highlighting one of them with the mouse. “It’s this one."

"Yes, so what?"

"So, if this sequence has already worked, then the others indicated here are probably also active."

"Your reasoning makes sense."

“How about trying one?”

"But won’t it be dangerous? I think we’ve already done enough damage."

"You're just a coward," said the big guy. "In the worst-case scenario, we’ll simply blow up another one of their damn spacecrafts."

"And what if we were to blow ourselves up instead? We don’t know anything about that thing."

"Come on let’s try it," exclaimed the fat guy, with the expression of a little boy about to set off a firecracker under his grandfather’s deck chair while he’s happily sleeping.

"You do it. I’m going to hide behind there."

"You are brave, aren’t you? Don’t worry, I’ll do it, you little sissy."

Then, after waiting for his crony to go and hide in the adjacent bedroom, the big guy took a deep breath and using his thick index finger, traced the first sequence shown on the monitor onto the object’s surface. Immediately afterwards, he tossed the device onto the sofa and threw himself to the ground with his hands above his head. He waited several seconds without moving, but nothing happened. He stayed there a little longer lying on the floor and only after having definitively established that there didn’t appear to be any imminent danger, he lifted his head slightly. The remote control was still lying on the seat of the sofa and didn’t seem to be working.

"So? What’s happened?" asked his crony, peeping cautiously around the semi-closed door.

"Absolutely nothing."

"Perhaps you made a mistake typing the sequence?"

"I don’t think so. I think I did everything correctly," said the big guy as, very carefully, he stood up and approached the alien object again.

"Go on, try again. I’ll stay here."

“Thanks for the help. What would I do without you?”

This time, the fat guy decided he wouldn’t throw himself to the floor again and composed the sequence simply sitting on the chair. He repeated the operation several times, but there didn’t seem to be any reaction at all from the object.

"Absolutely nothing," added the big guy.

"Perhaps we’re destroying all their spacecraft," commented the tall thin guy as he peeped round the door again.

“Don’t talk rubbish. The nerd said this thing only has a range of a few hundred thousand kilometres. Who knows where Nibiru has got to by now. Instead, I simply think this sequence isn’t operational."

"So, let’s try another, no?"

"Let’s try another? I’d say it’s only me doing all the ‘trying’."

"Oh, don’t nit-pick. After all, who’s the more technologically-minded between the two of us?"

"Okay, okay. I’ll try the second one now."

The big guy spent the next ten minutes composing almost all the combinations that had been displayed on the computer screen, one after the other, but nothing strange happened.

Meanwhile, as the situation seemed anything but dangerous, even his crony had joined him, and they were making conjectures and assumptions of all sorts together.

"Perhaps the images are the wrong way around," said the thin one at a certain point.

"No. The cuneiform characters on the remote control are in the same order as those on the screen."

"Then your amazing ‘sources’ must have dried up."

"That’s not possible. It has to work. I’m sure of that."

"There’s only two left to try. If they don’t work either, we’ll throw this thing in the bin and go and have a nice cool drink."

The big guy snorted and, without adding anything, composed the penultimate sequence, without much conviction. As soon as he’d touched the last symbol, he sensed a very slight shudder and an instant later, a sort of unnatural glow was released from the front of the device. There was a slight cracking noise and, a new, perfectly circular window, of about half a metre in diameter, opened up in the blank wall in front of them.

"What the hell..." exclaimed the thin guy with his eyes wide-open.

"For crying out loud..." added his friend equally amazed.

With their legs still trembling with fright, they stood up and cautiously approached the hole in the wall. It was the taller one who, having stuck his head inside the opening, exclaimed "That’s incredible! The wall’s gone, and we’ve even made a hole in that big advertising billboard for cars over there. It must be at least a hundred metres from here!"