Detina Flight of the Nocturnal Sun THE THREE BIPEDIAL BEINGS VANISHED INEXPLICABLY, AS IF INTO THIN AIR; DAVID HAD ENOUGH TIME TO REGISTER THEIR ECTOMORPHIC PHYSIQUES, BULBOUS HEADS AND ELONGATED LIMBS, BUT LITTLE ELSE. The Red Hand Gang entered the aperture single file, into an airlock of some kind where they were blasted with blistering light, then sanitized with smothering smoke. The exterior door hissed fast behind them, locking them in tight embrace. None of the boys could manage to speak, such was their fear. Five minutes passed, although it seemed to stretch for much longer. Then the interior wall gave way, in fact it seemed to dissolve, and the boys practically fell into a vast circular chamber that comprised the core of the UFO. They appeared to be all alone in this vehicle, which was rather a sleek affair with smooth black marble floors interspersed by rings of radiant white. As tantalizing as it was, the boys soon turned their attention to the portholes which perforated the hull. The scrub was in sight from some of them, and beyond the edge of the clearing, their abandoned bicycles could be seen glinting in the glare of the nocturnal sun. A great roar presently rumbled from the bottom of the craft, and David understood with a racing heart that they were blasting off. They climbed gradually at first, barely noticeable, but then quicker, with more confidence. The clearing dropped away rapidly, the steel of the BMXs glistening through the swaying branches. Interestingly, the passengers of the vessel felt no g-forces as the UFO accelerated, no compression nor strain. Reaching the lower troposphere, it swiveled around roughly, but without hurling the boys across the deck. They could walk freely, but they were drawn to one of the portholes, speechless. Richard pointed at the spidery threads of the streetlamps beneath, and David knew they were looking at Trundle in its totality receding into oblivion. It gave him an oddly godlike sensation. Goodbye, Mum and Dad, he thought glumly. Goodbye, world. The vessel continued rising and increased its momentum. The countryside sped by, faster and faster, although it was too dark to make out much detail. Between Trundle and Parkes, a speeding car came into view. It stopped moving as they flew overhead, and David could imagine its driver scrambling out on the road to gape with astonishment at the UFO. A few minutes later, he saw a freight train tearing across the landscape. Faster and faster they went, higher and higher. Lights of towns and small cities whizzing by at a terrific pace. A mountain range loomed up from the darkness before disappearing to the west. veering towards the Australian coast. Countless towns passed them by, and then a platter of light which could only have been Sydney. Beyond that, a few ships floated offshore, hugging the continental shelf... and then there was nothing but inky seas. Several minutes later, somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, the sun - the real sun of course, not this nocturnal pretender - lunged over the horizon and hailed them with a tropical urgency. It climbed into the sky at a perceptible pace, making David feel as if he was watching a movie sped up many times. Their velocity had to be astronomical! Once again, the perspective gave him a godlike feeling, as if he was privy to sacred knowledge, trespassing in the halls of Heaven. He momentarily covered his eyes, ashamed. Everything was going so fast. He suddenly realized that he had never been so far from home. Though none of the boys had any idea where they were, they would soon associate the land below with Chile. Rugged, snowcapped peaks pierced through the firmament, some of them shaped like volcanoes. To their amazement the UFO decelerated, and dipped into one of the clouds. On the other side, a tremendous lake opened up below, a blue alpine lake, rimmed with gravelly shores. David had never seen so much water in his whole life. As they plunged precariously a tiny settlement came into view, as obscure as Trundle, the South American version of Trundle you might say. It soon filled up all of the portholes, and then they were back on terra firma, blowing up the dust again. <<I wonder if they will let us out to have a look around?>> Nathan ventured. It was the first words muttered by any of the boys since their voyage began, and David was relieved to hear his voice. The door, however, did not open, and David kept his eyes trained on the porthole. Emerging from the village he beheld three men and a woman of short stature and clad in colorful woolen tunics, cautiously approaching the UFO. All at once the boys grasped what was happening. These Amerindians were in fact fellow Detinians, and were being picked up on the same flight as them. After their scouring in the airlock, presumably they would be let out too, to join them on this vast deck. The craft took off again, ascending from the Andean plateau. It seemed to be bearing northeast, across South America, and eventually the folded highlands and fractal valleys melted into the green immensity of the pampas. Before too long Amazon River appeared, with at least one thunderstorm disturbing its grandeur. None of the boys really comprehended what they were looking at, but they were impressed. <<What are they doing?>> Joshua whispered. <<Taking us on a world tour? >> The UFO presently swung horizontally about 90 degrees and accelerated into the night side of the Earth. The boys rushed to another porthole so they could get a better view. They must have been rising too, well into the stratosphere, as the curvature of the Earth became apparent. Africa was largely hidden by cloud, but lights were twinkling in the Middle East. David wondered if they were oil rigs, desert camps, or indeed whole cities? No - on closer inspection they were actually flying saucers, speeding away from their respective airlifts. David tried to count all of them but there were literally thousands. JOINING THE MASSIVE swarm, the vessel that carried the four boys from Trundle hustled into position. After a while, watching the rows of silver saucers began to lose its appeal. They wandered over to the enormous pillar which stood on a dais in the center of the chamber. It looked somewhat like a Roman column, crafted out of black marble and surmounted by a lotus flower made of scintillating crystal. It was a germanium crystal actually, constantly changing color, first black, now pale lilac, animated by a vital energy. At the base of the pillar stone tablets were stacked at a diagonal angle, somewhat resembling computer monitors. As they approached one of the tablets, extraterrestrial symbols extruded themselves from the stone, a cross between Russian and Arabic (or so it appeared to David). Of course, he understood neither of those languages, so he was flummoxed. <<Is it in Detinian?>> he asked. <<Gee, I never thought of Detinians talking to each other in anything other than English. How are we going to communicate?>> <<There must be a way to translate it>> Joshua responded. At the same time, the Amerindians had been freed from their airlock, and had congregated around their regional porthole, still too flabbergasted to make first contact. Both sides were getting frustrated by the language barrier. Possibly this column, an anti-Tower of Babel, concealed the missing pieces of the puzzle? Remembering his skills accumulated messing around with David's TI-99/4A computer, Josh tried to make sense of the strange interface of the stone monitors. He accidently swiped one of the alien characters, and automatically they all mutated to English (Australian dialect, to be precise.) <<Guys, I've got it!<< he exclaimed. <<Maybe it can sense your thoughts?>> Joshua observed. <<Or else they programmed it specially for us.>> As he was closest to the pillar, JC started reading aloud the text that was displayed: <<Greetings, Informats, sentient sparks of the Great Detinian Nation. Welcome on board the vessel piloted by Chief Expeditioner Gavrillon...>> He stumbled here, trying to pronounce the strange alien name that followed: <<Gavrillon G-V-Frnoikki, under the command of the Spaceforce of the Detinian Federation, Intergalactic Division. We deeply apologize for the rude nature of your forced repatriation. By order of General Evacuation Order 948 of the Detinian Congress, all informats are to be recalled to Detinian territory immediately pending the outcome of peace talks with the Black Council...>> <<The Black Council?>> Nathan wondered, a devious gleam appearing in his eyes. Josh ignored him, and resumed reading: <<After rejoining the fleet at meridian Pangol 734, 490 million from Sol, we will begin superluminal transfer to meridian Zongol 492, in the Small Magellanic Cloud.>>. <<What does superluminal mean?>> Richard asked, coming out of his coma. <<Guys, I can't read it if you keep interrupting me!>> he protested. The crystal started pulsing red, and a synthetic voice seemingly emitted by the air itself announced: <<Einstein-Rosen bridge approaching!" The saucer spun a little and revealed, perhaps 10,000 kilometers distant, a truly wondrous view. Against the starry skies (to be fair, everything was sky here... there was no horizon apart from the floor!) a hole in the universe had opened, a sinkhole you might say, literally sucking up everything in its vicinity. Silhouetted against this churning void, the forward rows of the Detinian fleet were falling into the abyss, to be swallowed up one by one. <<I think I know what superluminal means," David declared, as all the pieces finally assembled in his mind. Not for the first time tonight, David felt like he was shrinking. Experiences from the past - his Earth past, his Terran past - played out in rapid and random succession, one for every nanosecond, with an accompanying emotional affect. After what seemed like a lifetime later, but might have just been a few minutes, the dazzling whiteness gave way to the ordinary darkness of space. The cosmos solidified again outside. FIRST CONTACT (c)opyright Rob Sullivan 1988-2024. Contact the author for all your criticisms and feedbacks. 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