Your Truth is Out There (Find Your Truth Book 1) Page 5

  Up until two weeks ago, his life had been a miserable one. By leaving this world on a high note, it would at least have a happy ending.

  After leaving the restaurant, Henry drove for almost an hour before exiting the freeway. A few twists, turns, and switchbacks later, he finally turned eastward onto a deserted two-lane country road. If he’d continued east for another twelve miles he would have ended up in the town of Blainesbury, a nice-enough community whose only true distinction was that of being the natural rival to Henry’s hometown of Glenwood, located exactly twelve miles west.

  It had been a long time since Henry had been home, and even longer since he’d been to the secluded spot he’d chosen as his final destination. Not since he was fourteen, in fact. During those painful years of late childhood and early adolescence, when the reality of his unimportance to those around him had become too strong to ignore, he would hop on his old red Schwinn, backpack loaded with all the essentials: a pad of paper, a dozen number two pencils, his trusty transistor radio, and a 32-ounce bottle of his favorite caffeine-laced soda and ride out to the middle of nowhere. The hours would fly by as he listened to the local rock station while creating page after page of magnificent penciled beauty. Finally, as the sun melted into the horizon and the paper became too hard to see, he would reluctantly get on his bike and pedal home, only to find his absence had gone virtually unnoticed.

  In a sense, coming here was more of a homecoming for Henry than any visit to his parent’s house had ever been. It was a return to the only part of his childhood that ever felt like home. This time, he wasn’t coming to draw, sketch, or paint. The time for his art was over.

  Henry turned off on to a nondescript dirt path leading away from the paved road and from nearly all civilization. He drove along the path for almost two miles, descending slightly into a narrow ravine. The ravine was bordered on both sides by boulders that continued to increase in size, until they passed the point where they could no longer be considered boulders, but instead had to be referred to as small hills of rock. He rounded a final corner and stopped in a flat open area about the size of two football fields placed side-by-side. He shifted the car into “park,” turned off the engine, leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

  He was scared; there was no doubt about that. But he was also strangely calm. He had come to terms with the action he was about to take and was glad it would all soon be over. His plan was quite simple. He would remove his paintings from the car and set them up on display, hidden from view of all but the most prying eyes. It would be his first, last and only true gallery exhibit.

  Then he would have one last meal: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a small bag of tortilla chips, and a bottle of the same caffeine-laced soda he’d favored in his youth. After that, he would end it. One shot, upward through the chin and into the brain. It would be over quickly and would be virtually painless. Who knew what would happen after that? Maybe nothing at all. In any case, his miserable excuse for a life would finally be over. Steeling himself for what was about to happen, he got out of the car, put his coat on and looked around.

  “So, this is it,” he said quietly and started unloading the car.

  Chapter 9

  This Was a Bad Idea

  Qilzar was visibly shaking by the time he reached his vehicle.

  Zaras 7!

  Even with all his careful planning and preparation for this day, the day when he would finally be rid of Gsefx, that disloyal cretin, he had not seen this coming. He would rather be unemployed and living in a cave than go to Zaras 7. Of course, he’d rather not be unemployed, either. He had to find that miserable creature and convince him to come back.

  Qilzar’s initial attempts to contact Gsefx through his vehicle communicator proved unsuccessful, so he decided to break protocol and call Gsefx’s home. Though the home was considered a sanctuary from all unsolicited contact, under the circumstances he was sure Gsefx would overlook this small transgression.

  “Hello?” said a voice on the other end of the communicator (the receiver was currently blocking the video feed). The voice was female; Gsefx’s wife, perhaps?

  “Ah, hello Madame,” said Qilzar, “may I speak to Gsefx?”

  “He’s not here, he’s at work. Who’s calling?”

  Oh no, thought Qilzar, this was a bad idea.

  “Uh … this is Gsefx’s supervisor, Et Qilzar.” His voice was shaking. “Unfortunately, Gsefx is not at work this morning. I was hoping he had returned home.”

  Qilzar’s screen flickered momentarily before the image of a quite attractive Relnarian female appeared.

  “What’s happened? Is Gsefx all right? He’s not hurt is he? What’s going on?”

  “Madame, I assure you, Gsefx is fine. There was just a bit of a misunderstanding, that’s all.”

  The woman’s expression changed from concern to cold wariness.

  “What has happened, Et Qilzar? Yes, I know all about you. Gsefx has told me how you treat him.”

  “I assure you, Madam, nothing has happened … well, not nothing …” Qilzar was barely holding it together under the force of her glare. “… you see, to be precise … uh … ahem … oh dear … ah … it … it seems Gsefx mistakenly got the impression that I … umm … fired him this morning.”

  “YOU WHAT? YOU FIRED HIM?”

  “Well, you see … it was like I said … I didn’t actually fire him … well, yes I did … but, you see, it was just a terrible misunderstanding …”

  “Why would you do such a thing? Gsefx is the top accountant in your department; he’s saved your pale gray hide more times than I can count! What’s wrong with you? And more importantly, where is my husband?”

  “Madam, please calm yourself, I don’t know where he is, which is why I’m contacting you … I just …”

  The screen went blank. She hung up on him. Qilzar sat for a moment in stunned silence. With each passing moment and new encounter, this rotation’s events continued to stray further away from what he had expected. He had certainly not been prepared for an encounter with Gsefx’s wife, especially one that had gone so horribly wrong. He collected himself and began considering his alternatives, only to realize that he didn’t have any. The woman who had just hung up on him was his only hope and he had to find a way to convince her to help him.

  “Gralt!” he said under his breath, as he reached for the vidcon again. But before he could punch in the code, it lit up with an incoming call. It was her again and her mood hadn’t improved any.

  “I just spoke with Et Xtlar and he confirmed your idiocy,” she said. “Meet me in the parking lot of the Pigawitts building on Lecturn and Semler in twenty ebyts.”

  “Madam,” said Qilzar, “I don’t understand why we have to meet. Can’t we just discuss this now?”

  “Just be there, unless you want to spend the rest of your career on Zaras 7!” The vidcon went blank once again.

  His anxiety rising to a whole new level, Qilzar started his vehicle and left the Galacticount parking structure, for what he hoped was not the last time.

  Chapter 10

  Not From Anywhere on Earth

  Henry washed down the last bite of his sandwich with a final swig of his soda, then reached over and turned off the radio, which had been blasting rock music from his favorite childhood station. He reached into the glove compartment, removed the .357 magnum and the single box of bullets he’d purchased specifically for this occasion. A slight smile crossed his face as he checked to make sure the safety was on before loading each of the gun’s six chambers.

  No sense in blowing a hole in my leg before I’m ready to put one through my head, he thought.

  He got out of the car and walked over to his paintings. There were nineteen large and twelve smaller works; he’d been busy over the last two weeks, no doubt about that. He slowly reviewed each painting, inspecting them in much the same way he imagined a military commander might inspect his troops before sending them into battle. By the time he�
�d looked them all over, a sense of detached satisfaction came over him. He knew they were good, better than anything he’d ever done before. Certainly as good as anything he’d seen at a gallery or museum.

  In another time and place, Henry’s satisfaction would have been tainted with the sorrow and resentment that came from knowing his work, as good as it was, would never be seen by those who might appreciate it. Knowing that if he’d only had the right connections, he could possibly have had a real exhibit somewhere, perhaps even have sold some of his work, maybe even enough to make a living. But his current state of calm would not allow him to step back into such sadness. Thoughts of this kind no longer mattered. A few minutes from now nothing would ever matter again.

  Standing in the midst of his works, Henry took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He lifted the revolver to click the safety off, but before he could do so, a high-pitched whining sound from above caught his attention. He looked up, but failed to locate its source at first. After several minutes, in which the sound grew continually louder, he saw a small object descending rapidly and coming directly toward him.

  As it got closer, Henry could see that the object was a ship of some sort. A craft unlike anything he’d ever seen before. He tried to dismiss the crazy notion of this being some sort of alien spaceship—it was probably just some new airplane the military was testing. But as it got closer, all doubt left his mind; this ship was not from anywhere on Earth.

  Chapter 11

  A Single Irtling

  Gsefx watched his screen intently as he struggled to control his ship. Descending through the planet’s atmosphere without a functioning attitude control was difficult enough, but he also had to avoid any encounters with native air traffic. Considering he had no idea what their air ships looked like, or how fast they might travel, he had to stay sharp all the way to the ground. Thankfully, Irt’s small population meant relatively clear skyways. All things considered, things were going pretty well so far, but as he got closer to the ground and the planet’s gravitational forces grew increasingly stronger, he found it even more difficult to maintain control of his vehicle.

  As he guided his ship downward, he also scanned for sentient life-forms on the ground. From what he could tell, it appeared there were no natives close enough to observe his landing, which was a good thing. A very good thing. Like Gsefx, most of this planet’s inhabitants seemed to prefer living close together in large urban settings. This location had been as far away from those population centers as he could find, while still offering a reasonable possibility of having the materials he needed to fix his ship.

  He was nearly to the ground, ready to breathe a sigh of relief at his good fortune, when his console lit up with a warning, and the screen zoomed in on the lone figure of what Gsefx assumed to be a single Irtling staring up at him.

  “Gralt!” he spat, his heart sinking and stomach twisting into a knot. Panic, mixed with feelings of self-pity and despair, began to set in.

  Why did I ever come here? He thought. Whatever possessed me to attempt such a stupid stunt? I should have just gone home and waited for Planvc, or better yet, taken the ship in for a check-up like a responsible adult. That’s what Lhvunsa would say, anyway. By the Gods, Lhvunsa! How am I going to explain this to her?

  He was about to vow that if he made it out of this in one piece, he’d pay more attention to his wife in the future, when the ship lurched heavily to the left and he nearly lost control, snapping his focus back to the task at hand.

  No time for vows, self-recrimination or second guessing now! I can do that once I’m safely out of here. For now, it looks like I’m just going to have to deal with what’s in front of me.

  Struggling to control the ship, he glanced out of the front window.

  “Gralt!” he shouted frantically, seeing his bad situation turning disastrous. He was about to land right on top of the Irtling!

  Pulling back on the controls and frantically pushing buttons, Gsefx maneuvered the ship up slightly and over just enough to clear the Irtling and set the vehicle down in a clear spot without doing any further damage to the ship or the native on the ground. He shut the engines down and took a few deep breaths to compose himself before unbuckling his safety restraint and opening the door.

  “Thank the Gods there’s only one of them,” he said, as he stepped out to meet the lone representative of planet Irt.

  Chapter 12

  Something to Live For

  As it descended, the ship lurched from side-to-side with ever-increasing frequency, never leaving its track directly toward Henry.

  It’s going to crash for sure, and take me and my paintings with it! Thought Henry after a particularly violent surge. A part of him wanted to get out of the way of the rapidly descending ship, a part of him wanted to save his paintings, and still another part of him wanted to raise the gun in his hand and start firing on the intruder. In the end, he could do nothing but watch, transfixed by the strange craft bearing down on him.

  The ship stopped suddenly, barely fifty feet above his head, bounced around for a few seconds and then moved off, missing Henry and safely setting down in an open space about thirty yards away. Henry clicked the safety off on his revolver and walked toward the new arrival.

  As he approached it, he could see that the ship was about forty feet long and ten feet high—nearly twice the size of his car. It also had a strange looking, tent-shaped, appendage on the top of the hull that added another four feet to its height. The ship was off-white, with a rounded front, a dark tinted windshield and dark windows on the side where he suspected the passenger seat would be located. Outlines for the doors were set midway between the front and rear of the craft.

  Henry stopped about ten feet away from the now silent ship and waited to see what would happen next. To say he was scared would be putting it mildly. Just a few minutes earlier, he’d been ready to take his own life, but the arrival of this uninvited guest to his farewell party brought on a new feeling that overrode all other considerations. Regardless of the circumstances that brought him here, Henry was now the only thing standing between an alien of unknown intentions and the rest of humanity. For the moment, at least, it seemed he had something to live for.

  Without warning, the dark windows cleared and the doors slid silently open. Its pilot stepped out onto the dirt and faced Henry.

  Chapter 13

  The Irtling

  What he saw when he stepped out of his vehicle was more foreign to Gsefx than he had expected. The landscape was like nothing he’d ever seen before. He and his Irtling counterpart were standing in a large open area, covered with dirt and large rocks. They were surrounded by hills clearly made of the same material as the rocks scattered about on the ground and except for the two of them, it was completely uninhabited. Of course, that was why he had chosen this spot to land and make repairs, but to actually experience such a large empty space was very new to him. He was the product of an urban metropolis and had never before been anywhere this bereft of life, aside from travelling through space, and even then there were usually other ships passing by.

  The Irtling who stood before him was not nearly as strange as he had expected someone from a world this primitive. Its dimensions were not too unlike Gsefx, himself, except for the fact that it had only two arms and two legs. It was similar in height, although much thinner. Its face and head were also of similar size and shape and the hair on the top of its head was fuller than Gsefx’s, and of a light brownish color.

  Wanting to get a closer look at the creature, Gsefx momentarily forgot the potential danger and started walking toward the Irtling. As soon as he did so, the creature raised one of its two arms, pointed something at him and yelled something completely incomprehensible. Gsefx froze, cursing himself for once again being so careless.

  Chapter 14

  The Alien

  Fear and fascination mixed together in Henry’s mind as the alien emerged from the ship. His first reaction was that this creature was not totally u
nlike him, it was humanoid at least, similar in height but a bit larger around. What fascinated him the most was the creature’s four arms and four legs. He wondered how so many limbs could work in concert with one another. It seemed impossibly inefficient.

  The creature’s face was rounder than the average human, but it contained the same basic features, two eyes, two ears, a nose and a mouth. The skin was very smooth, seemingly incapable of growing facial hair and had a light bluish hue to it. Aside from a small ring of short, straight blonde hair around the top of its head, it seemed completely hairless. It also wore clothes not unlike those found on Earth. They were obviously made of different materials and were dramatically more colorful than anything Henry had ever seen before, but the basic pants and shirt concept were still the same. Its feet were large and leathery and seemed to require no shoes.

  The creature, who had been staring at Henry in much the same way he had been staring at it, began walking toward him. Fear took over and without thinking Henry raised the gun and pointed it toward the creature.

  “Stop right there or I’ll shoot. Don’t come any closer!” he shouted, fighting to keep the gun and his voice steady.

  Chapter 15

  Bang!

  Stopped dead in his tracks, fear making an impression on him at last, Gsefx slowly raised all four of his arms with his hands open wide in a gesture meant to show he was unarmed and posed no threat. He didn’t recognize the specific item being pointed at him, but knew what it was just the same. Primitive Cultures was a required course in school and he remembered learning just how paranoid and violent beings of lesser evolvement could be. Whatever it was being pointed at him was undoubtedly a weapon of some sort. Primitive perhaps, but dangerous nevertheless, possibly even deadly.