Author : J M Walker

he had no idea if she would have this opportunity again. Every second counted. Only moments were left of her two hour time allotment. Her opportunity to advance earth’s technology, and most likely her career, depended on how much information she could gather in these last few moments. She suddenly felt dizzy, her blood sugar was dropping. “Not now!” her mind screamed in panic. She felt in the pocket of her lab coat once again for the piece of hard candy she usually kept there for emergencies. She had used the candy during a meeting yesterday and had forgotten to replace it. She expected to come up with the penny that had found its way there but to her surprise she found a peppermint. Setting the mystery aside, she shoved the candy into her mouth and went back to her notes.

A bell chimed. Dr Richardson sighed and stepped to the personnel lift.

As the lift doors closed the starship vanished leaving stark white walls, floor and ceiling.

The doors swished open a moment later. A janitor with a push broom entered the room.

“Are you okay love?” he asked the voluptuous, scantily dress woman that was handcuffed to an examination table in the center of the room. “Why did they bring you here? What are they doing to you?” This was the fifth day he had found her here and he knew she wouldn’t answer, mute he guessed. He stepped to the table and took her in his arms, comforting her. He wiped the tears from her eyes and kissed her. “I’ll get you out of here, I promise,” he whispered. She excepted his advances greedily.

Half an hour later the janitor left the room, tears in his eyes at leaving her behind. Determined to find a way to get her out.

As the doors closed, the women and exam table vanished.

Dr. Sanders entered the lift. He didn’t know what he would find upstairs today. Yesterday he found the money he needed to pay his parking fine but still no answers to what the alien technology that physically resided there was. His job depended on those answers. If he didn’t find them today he was fired.

Dr. Sanders stepped off the lift. In the center of the room sat a small ornate box. This was different. He sat down cross legged before it and opened the lid. A tiny green woman, dressed in bright colors, stood up to confront him. He could see through her. She appeared almost crystalline. His mind was instantly filled with her thoughts. He knew she acted out of compassion for others, giving them the desires of their hearts and fulfilling their needs.

“Thank you for allowing me to see what is really going on here,” he told her. “I know you want to help me keep my job. Because of how kind you are I can’t let my superiors know about you. They would torture you and dissect you to figure you out. I can’t let that happen.”

“Thank you for your kind intentions toward me. Here is your reward.” His body took on the colors of a rainbow and began to dissolve.

“What is happening to me?” he asked.

“I am sending you to a place where you can become enlightened.”

“Can’t I stay with you?”

“What makes you think we’re real?”

His body finished dissolving. The box and the alien vanished.

The lift doors opened…