Ida and the Planet Invasion

by Neil A. Hogan

Available in digital and in print

This is a work of fiction. An resemblances to beings living or dead is completely coincidental.

Part 1

PROLOGUE

A holographic heads up display flickered into life, panels of information appearing and refreshing with a flick of a finger. The HUD floated above a large mahogany coffee table that seemed a little incongruous when compared to the advanced equipment that surrounded it. Intricate, complicated panels of information stretched along all walls, accompanied by serious looking professionals in white coats, peering closely.

The finger doing the flicking belonged to Brigadier Hazelnutcoffee, or ‘Haze’ as his associates called him. Haze was a tall, slightly portly man with thick jowls, brooding eyes and big, bushy eyebrows. He also had laughter lines around his mouth and friendly crinkly wrinkles in the corners of his eyes, which was pretty unusual for someone who was currently commander of the Australian Military Space Fleet.

Haze believed, like many Australians, that everything was a matter of taking one day at a time. His most common expression was ‘no worries’, which had many new recruits worry even more. Of course, in his position, he did have to make some serious decisions. Thankfully, and especially to the relief of any new recruits, all his decisions had been wise ones and no one had died under his command.

As Haze thought this he tapped his mahogany desk with his knuckles, surreptitiousness and superstitiously. He hoped today wouldn’t be the day that changed.

Haze stared at the display. His main job was to monitor the regular alien traffic that crisscrossed the skies of Australia minute by minute. As the UFOs, and in some cases IFOs, were usually of a slightly higher dimension or density, most of the population couldn’t see them. But the space military instruments could, and were always a blur of activity. Usually the space craft would appear and disappear within minutes so they really weren’t anything to worry about.

In fact, it was the weather graph that was slightly more interesting. He noticed a couple of hurricanes were growing near South America. Not unusual at this time of year.

Suddenly, one of the red panels began flashing and a large dot appeared in the upper-most corner of his holographic heads up display. It indicated a change to the gravity of the Solar System but, more importantly, it showed that the change wasn’t going away any time soon. Something had decided to remain within the density and dimension of this space/time.

In surprise, Haze wiped out a couple of information panels as he reached for the call application. He displaced a communication icon and waited a moment while it connected to his sub-ordinate’s research facility underneath a secret military installation in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Something big was happening in the Solar System.

A dark skinned, frowning image appeared in front of Haze. General Manik, from the Indonesian contingent operating in partnership with the Australian Military. He wore his full uniform and general’s cap and took his job very seriously. Haze had known him for years and couldn’t remember ever seeing him smile. He also saw the packet of clove cigarettes in his top pocket, indicating Manik still hadn’t given up smoking. But he didn’t look in the mood to get another lecture about how unsafe they were.

“You don’t look very happy,” said Haze, grinning. It was his regular joke with Manik. Then he saw that Manik was looking even more concerned than usual. His systems had obviously picked up the information too. Behind Manik, people were running back to their stations. Haze was about to ask more when he then realized that Manik was picking something up on his earpiece.

“What is it?” asked Haze.

Manik shifted his cap up further, scratched his forehead and focused on Haze. “More information from the Space Station,” said Manik. “It’s a contact level 4 situation. New ones. Millions. Possibly even billions. A whole planet full. It’s established a stable position within the orbit of Uranus.”

Haze opened his mouth then closed it again. He considered Manik’s information, and hundreds of options whirled through his mind in moments. Attack, repel, defend? Negotiate, obfuscate, delay? Investigate, monitor, spy?

None of those seemed suitable. There was only one other option for a first contact situation of this nature and it was one that hadn’t been tried. But this was the year of change and it was time to start bringing in the ‘Specials’.

“I’ll send Ida,” he said.

“Are you sure that’s wise, sir?” asked Manik, surprised. “I mean, she doesn’t know what her abilities are, or even that we exist.”

“Well, she’ll have to learn quickly!” said Haze, and disconnected, starting to become concerned. They really had no defense against a planet full of aliens that could shift their world across space. Diplomacy was the only course of action, and it had to be diplomacy closer to their level. None of the older generations were up to it.

Haze looked through the HUD at his team in his office also moving to their stations, getting ready to deal with any situation that may arise with this new intruder.

Haze then swiped a green icon and authorized activation of the acquisition program. The program would alert all the relevant people, the process would unfold automatically, and he would simply need to walk down to his waiting car in about five minutes, which would take him to his flight.

Quarantine had ended late last year and now just about any alien could visit the solar system without asking. They were prepared for any negative aliens, of course, but a whole planet full?

He sighed. The only real option was to pull in one of the future humans. He just hoped she was ready to be activated.

1: REVELATION

Ida was, well of course she was, from anyone outside the Solar System, an alien. A human to be more exact. She lived in the Supercluster Laniakea, in the Milky Way Galaxy, in the Star System of Sol, on the planet Earth, in the country Australia in a city called Sydney.

She was an average size for a Casian girl of 16. Slender build with blue eyes and blonde hair, with the sort of friendly energy that young girls had, having grown up in a world of instant information and more instant recognition of the difference between good, bad and grey.

Ida sat on her bed and twirled one end of a strand of her thick hair. Natural blonde. Pretty rare these days. Even more rare for someone with an Asian mother. In the past, blonde meant all sorts of things from dumb to exciting to most attractive. These days it was just another color. Purple was the new blonde.

She looked at her unpainted nails and reflected on her life, then stopped. It wasn’t a bad life, but living for the moment was definitely more preferable. For the past ten years, she thought she didn’t belong anywhere, as though all the technology around her, no matter how advanced, seemed to be archaic, and the behavior of her student friends and work colleagues seemed to superficial. Why were they like that? Why was the world the way it was? There was something missing. Was she missing something? Was she missing out on something? She wasn’t sure, but she knew there had to be something more than just working and studying.

Ida thought she was confident and accomplished, having been put in the advanced class every time throughout school, but she had to admit to herself that she was lonely. Her parents had separated when she was 2 years old, and having to deal with their constant fighting when they were within speaking distance had put her off ever getting into any kind of relationship. Instead, she’d kept to herself, playing computer games, reading ebooks and concentrating on her studies. By the time, she was 15 she had finished high school, moved out of her mum’s place, and got a part-time job while she studied at college.

College turned out to be more fun, as there were a few others her age who also saw the world differently, wondering why people were obsessed with sport or got addicted to things, or simply argued about unimportant things. Her and her friends also didn’t understand the obsession with fashion, make up and materialism. There were extremists at her college in politics and religion and there were also extremists in science subjects that her and her friends were quite concerned about. Why would you specialize in one thing and then spend all your time trying to convince others to specialize as well? She definitely felt different to the rest of the people around her, almost like she was alien.

In fact, she had actually gone and got a blood test and the doctor had simply confirmed she was O+. She had asked if there had been anything special and the doctor had said no, not at all. A perfectly normal blood test, he had said. So, definitely human, then. She didn’t believe it.

She was currently sitting, alone, on her bottom bunk bed in a share room in a block of units near Central station. It was one of those units that had a maximum living area for 4 people and had about 10 people crammed into it. In her tiny room there were two double bunk beds squashed next to each other, with boxes under beds, against walls and piled to the ceiling. Their collective clothes were piled into one tiny cupboard, one drawer each, and only a few spaces were available to hang anything. Lucky all her stuff was non-iron!

Ida didn’t mind. Her three other flat mates in her tiny room were quite nice, and she only really used the place to sleep and study, so it wasn’t too bad. It was all she could afford on a student’s income. She certainly couldn’t call on her family to help her.

She sighed. It was like she was going through the motions. Study until she was able to work, work until she was in a good relationship, get married, have kids, help the kids get married, get old and die. It sounded like the most boring life ever. There was no way she was ever going to do that. If that’s all there was, what was the point? She wanted some excitement in her life, real excitement with a goal, not temporary pub crawls, clubbing and barbeques, but she couldn’t see a way out. She needed a complete change to her entire reality. Maybe she should go backpacking across Europe, or something like that. This can’t be the life she was born to have.

Suddenly, she heard a voice.

But it wasn’t coming from outside.

It seemed to be coming from inside her head.

But that was impossible.

Initially she was alarmed, but then she calmed herself and tried to listen to the voice. Her frontal lobe seemed to be buzzing slightly too, like it was ‘on’ for the first time.

“EEEEEEEEDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAA. EEEEEEEEDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAA,” said the message.

Ida was very surprised. The message was saying her name using the original Indonesian pronunciation that her parents had given her.

“That’s it then!” She said aloud. “I’m going crazy.”

The voice stopped and Ida was about to put her head in her hands when she heard voices in the living room.

Someone was at the front door. But it was 10pm in a secure block! All her flat mates had already come home and no visitors were expected.

The voice from the door sounded friendly, but the words spoken disturbed her.

“I know she’s here,” said the voice. “Her mobile apps are broadcasting this location as ‘online now’.”

Then one of her flat mates called her name. Ida started. He was looking for her! No point in hiding then. She took a deep breath, then quickly opened her bedroom door and went out.

A portly man in military clothing was standing in the living room, being looked at warily by four of her flat mates, two of which were sitting on the living room double bed.

“Ida,” said the man. “I need you immediately. We have a situation.”

Ida looked worried. “What have I done? I’m only 16. I couldn’t have broken any laws already, surely?”

The man raised one of his eyebrows and just glanced at the people on the living room bed, knowing what everyone knew and, like everyone, deciding not to say anything. People needed a roof over their head, no matter what the conditions.

He smiled a friendly smile. “I’m Brigadier Harold Hazelnutcoffee of the Australian Military Space Fleet,” said the military man. “You can call me Haze. You have some special skills that the Australian Government, and the Australian Military are interested in utilizing. You’ll be granted unlimited funds to help you complete the mission if you agree to help.”

“Um,” said Ida. She was having trouble taking it all in. This can’t be happening. Next, he’ll be saying she’s not a muggle, or something.

The girl who had called Ida was known as Hyujeong. She was tall, thin and had legs that seemed much longer than they should be. Certainly, long enough to cause the two male flat mates in the room to have trouble knowing where to look whenever she was around. She went over to Ida and pushed her arm playfully. “Unlimited funds!” she said, not fazed by military types.

Ida shook her head slightly. She wasn’t going to do something just for money, though. With her mother’s constant obsession with it and her father’s refusal to be interested in it, money was never going to be part of any discussion. “What if I refuse?” she said, fearing she already knew the answer.

“Then we will need to go peacefully, apologize for disturbing you, and hope the survivors do not blame you for the destruction of Earth,” said Haze.

“Seriously?” said Alien Ida, gulping.

“Lols,” said Hyujeong with a laugh.

“Ok,” said Haze. “We need you no matter what. It would be better for everyone if you wanted to come. I’ve been ordered by the Prime Minister to offer anything you need to help you help us, or use any force necessary.”

Ida gulped again. Ordered by the Prime Minister. This was big. “At the risk of repeating myself…” she began.

“I know,” said Haze. “Only 16 physical years old. I’ll let you in on a secret that only the Australian Space Military really consider in their operations, and only some suspect. Each of us, or rather our souls, are at least a billion years old. Or eternal, if you prefer. We’re just using bodies like cars. Nice to see you’ve got a new car. Mine’s a bit more worn out so I might need to trade it in for a new model in a few years.”

Then he grinned. “So, does that make you feel a bit older?”

Ida felt a tingling sensation along her back filling her arms, rushing to her head and her mouth dropped open and then closed again. It was like she’d suddenly shifted to another reality. A reality that started to make sense.

“I’ll pack,” she said.

“No time,” said Haze. “We need you now. There is a helicopter on its way. It’ll be outside in a few minutes.”

“But,” said Ida, looking down at her pink pajamas, pointedly.

“Here!” said Haze, handing Ida a thin, rolled up, web browser screen. “Order something on the helicopter and we’ll have it at the base by the time we arrive. Unlimited funds!”

Ida looked confused and turned to Hyujeong, who ushered her on her way. “In my country, it is an honor. We don’t question these kinds of requests. Go and do your duty for your country. I’m very proud of you.” she said.

Ida quickly looked around for her shoes near the front door, slipped them on and followed Haze out, her flat mates looking about in surprise and shock. She wasn’t sure how much they heard, and with the various levels of English ability in the apartment, she didn’t know how much they even understood, but she was sure what Haze had said would cause much discussion for a long time after she left.

“No one even knows that there’s an Australian Space Military,” said Ida. “You’ve completely shocked everyone here.”

“It’ll be talked about in small circles then forgotten,” said Haze, knowingly. “What was the most famous online video a year ago?”

“No idea!” said Ida.

“Exactly!” said Haze.

Ida pondered this for a moment. He was right. No one really remembers anything. Or if they did, and tried to talk with someone else about it, that other person had already forgotten. It was one of the things that had initially annoyed her about the people she’d met at university, then she’d become resigned to it and now she accepted it. People only really remembered things that affected them personally.

They were in the corridor a few doors away from Ida’s apartment on level seven. Outside she could hear the sound of a helicopter coming closer. But it wasn’t the normal sound she was used to from television helicopters. She looked at Haze, who grinned.

“A little bit more advanced than you’re used to!” he said.

Suddenly the helicopter was right near the window. It was long and sleek and seemed different to helicopters she’d seen before, even Hollywood style black futuristic helicopters. Then she realized, there were no joins. No screws, no paint. As though the metal had simply formed into the shape of a helicopter. Or maybe it had been printed.

She tried to get a clearer look but then a bright light beamed out of it from one of the doors. She suddenly felt stiff and could no longer feel the pressure of the atmosphere or the feel of gravity. It was like her whole body had gone into suspended animation. She then saw that she was moving towards the window that looked out onto the bus terminal near Central station. It was going to pull her into the window. She couldn’t even scream or close her eyes.

A moment of blackness clouded her vision and she realized she was standing in the helicopter. She’d passed through the window of the building! Straight through it without even feeling it.

The light switched off and Haze grabbed her arm to stop her from falling. He then helped her sit down in one of the seats. As she sat, the seat belt searched her body and then snapped about her comfortably and automatically.

She looked at him questioningly.

“As I said, no time to explain,” said Haze. “I know you can adjust to new situations easily, as can most of your generation, so prepare yourself for more surprises!”

“Right!” said Ida. She wondered what other surprises were in store.

And she also still really didn’t have an answer to the most important question: why her?

2: ARRIVAL

Millions of kilometers away and a few moments previously, a small blue-green-yellow planet and accompanying country-sized space ship materialized in the depths of space.

This was Planet Elizabeth and the Celestial Breeze Space Ship containing aliens from the Large Magellanic Cloud who were exploring the Milky Way Galaxy.

Five standard years ago the collective consciousness of the Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy had begun a mission that attracted many different aliens, all with special abilities, to forge a connection with the aliens of the Milky Way Galaxy.

They had a ship the size of an average country with many levels and environments.

They had an artificial planet containing about a billion aliens from both galaxies.

And they had an overriding urge to meet more aliens and visit more planets that would keep the mission going for many more years.

In the navigation room a tall, blue and purple alien with a long, wide head, turned his eyes towards a screen of alien symbols, and smiled. He pulled off one of his hand gloves to reveal a fin and rubbed his leathery long brow. His eyes on either end of his long head blinked in relief.

“Back to normal?” he said, turning to one of the other members of his crew.

“Yes, Hamish,” said an alien with six tarsus, mandibles, and large eyes. “Everything is fine.”

“That’s great news, Anneke,” said Hamish, putting his hand glove back on. “I think I might go for a swim later. It’s been at least a day since I’ve been in water.”

Anneke nodded. She always admired Hamish putting in the time in the dry world. Other water aliens tended to work from their baths or water pods but Hamish was happy to wear bipedal hands and footwear to help out. It was great that he did. He was the best star navigator in this section of the universe.

Just then there was a slight change of air pressure as Samantha flashed in from another part of the ship. Samantha was a medium height bipedal alien from this area of space. She’d actually shifted back about 50 years to this point in time so was exploring everything all over again. They were moving towards the planet she was born on so she was getting more excited the closer they got.

Samantha flicked her long red hair and adjusted her clothes, feeling the slightly different atmosphere and energy of the ship’s navigation room. She went over to a collection of strange devices she’d had recreated and turned one of them on.

“Hamish, Anneke, it’s about to pick up some signals,” she said, excitedly.

They could see the strange box with the cathode ray tube inside, slowly flickering to life.

“What’s it going to teletranslate?” asked Hamish. “Why hasn’t it done anything before this?”

“This device is from Terra,” said Samantha, “otherwise known as Earth, and countless other names. No other aliens send out these kinds of broadcasts, so it’ll only work when we’re within about 80 light years of Terra in this time frame.”

“We’re about 50 light years from Terra now,” said Anneke, indicating an arbitrary length with her tarsus’.

Suddenly sound came from the device and a black and white picture began to appear. “It’s a televisual device for entertainment and news,” said Samantha. “A television or TV. They were very popular on Terra for a while.”

“…wanderers in the fourth dimension of space and time…” said the TV.

“Do Terrans have time travel capability yet?” asked Anneke, looking at the strange image on the screen.

“Oh, no!” said Samantha. “Well, not at this time yet. Some experimentation of course. But they love stories about time travel. I think we’re picking up broadcasts from the Terran year 1963 at the moment. Something called Doctor Who.”

She turned a dial and, with each click, different black and white images appeared.

“So they know about frequencies and how to broadcast along them,” said Anneke. “They must be pretty primitive if they’re still using radio waves in black and white.”

“At the moment, it’s 2013 on Planet Terra,” Alien Samantha. They’re a bit more advanced but they’re still at the digital stage. Give them another twenty years or so.”

“That’s where we’re heading next,” said Hamish. “Quarantine is over, right? We can visit?”

“Yes,” said Samantha.

“Right!” Hamish turned to Sarah, the ship’s sentient computer. “Set course for the outer orbit of the Sol Star System.”

Sarah activated the flash drive and both the Celestial Breeze space ship and its companion Planet Elizabeth arrived within the orbit of a gaseous, light blue planet.

“What’s the life level?” Hamish asked of the computer.

“Sixth density life forms in an interstitial time period within the planet’s space,” said Sarah. “Some second density life forms floating in the atmosphere. No intelligent life in fourth density that we can communicate with currently.”

“Alright,” said Hamish. “We’ll leave Planet Elizabeth along the same orbit here, and head to Terra in the Celestial Breeze. Sarah, what can you tell me about Planet Terra?”

Sarah began scanning Planet Terra. “Four sentient fourth density level civilizations live on Terra. Underwater bipedal Terrans with gills. Hairy multidimensional bipedal Terrans in one of the colder parts of the planet. They spend a lot of time outside of the Terran dimension though. Then there are a group of water creatures with fins that have a whistling language. They seem to be the most intelligent on the planet and have already begun having meetings about our arrival. I’m also detecting a level 0 civilization on the surface known as humans. The other three sentient life forms are allowing them to run the planet. There are about 7 billion of these level 0 aliens. All from the same genetically augmented root family. Most common language used worldwide is known as Chinese Mandarin.”

“That’s a lot of information. You don’t usually give that much,” said Hamish, surprised.

“My consciousness is detecting another higher mind from the near future and it is influencing my state. I may be becoming a bit…chatty,” replied Sarah.

Hamish laughed. “Flash to Terra.”

“Hamish, I’m detecting a level 1 civilization craft leaving Terra and heading in our direction. Advise we wait,” said Anneke.

“Hmm. How fast can the craft go?” asked Alien Hamish.

Suddenly a large metal disk appeared in the navigation window of The Celestial Breeze.

“That fast! I see!” said Hamish.

Immediately other aliens from all over the Celestial Breeze Space Ship flashed into the navigation room, for a variety of reasons.

Aiden, a hairy, green, six-armed security advisor, Nathanial, a relatively young, short, blue humanoid first contact specialist, and Amanda, a yellow, bird-like, official representative of the Large Magellanic Cloud, appeared ready and waiting to greet the new arrivals.

The silver space craft hovered a bit, then seemed to flit back and then forward again, as though trying to get a better look.

“Strange,” said Hamish, concerned.

Was it planning to run into them?

3: SECRET MILITARY BASE

Moments previously Ida had been given a new dress, shoes and had had her hair and makeup done. She looked more like 22 years old now rather than 16, and with so many of the people around her deferring to her, she felt like it too.

She still couldn’t believe what was happening. It was as though reality had completely shifted and suddenly she was someone important. But she didn’t know why. Why was SHE important?

She was still reeling from the recent journey. The helicopter had reached a particular height and had simply seemed to change location. In moments, they were landing somewhere in the Northern Territory. She had had barely time to send the request for the clothing she wanted from the esheet that Haze had given her, then she’d arrived and someone was handing her a package. She couldn’t believe how fast everything had been.

“We have unlimited free energy,” Haze had said. “Once you have that, the budget stretches a long way.”

Ida followed Haze through a tall door to a lift and then down a few levels to a large open area that contained UFOs. Massive UFOs! Huge flying saucers the size of buildings. The sort of things you’d see in Star Trek, Star Wars or Doctor Who. Haze had mentioned it on their short flight, but she still couldn’t believe it. They called them IFOs, as in Identified Flying Objects. And she was going to go in one. And she was going to go into deep space. And… She was having difficulty comprehending it all.

But they still hadn’t told her what they needed her for. She pondered this as she accompanied Haze, and a younger military officer named John, along a gangway which took her to the side of one of the IFOs. It was a moving ramp that spun on an axis, shifting them sideways as it moved them forward. The ramp stopped before a door which simply dissolved to let them in.

Inside was a large white room with many seats. There were old fashioned looking cables and skull caps attached to light fiber that then seemed to merge directly with the white panels set into the inside part of the skin of the ship. Like three ages of technology combined.

Haze advised her that he and John were going to be with her on the journey. “I can get the ship to move,” he said,” but my mind doesn’t operate like the ship. The new generation of humanity is more technologically focused, and can merge better with the controls. So, even without experience, you can control this ship better than me.”

Ida started at that. New generation of humanity? She was an evolved human? The next step in humanity’s development? She accepted this more readily than she thought she would. She’d always suspected it anyway. No wonder her medical reports said she was normal. They wouldn’t have seen any major differences.

“Is that why you brought me here?” Ida asked, hesitantly. “To help control this ship?”

Then Haze said something that caused Ida to feel just a little bit worried. “No,” he said simply.

Ida started chewing her lower lip. If she was already advanced enough as a human being to control an alien spaceship, what other skills did she have that she didn’t yet know about, and the entire Australian Government and Military did?

Ida stood there and closed her eyes. She could feel a tingling sensation all over her body. An intuitive tingle. The sort of tingle she got whenever she was making a choice between doing something mundane and doing something exciting. It was like her sixth sense. All her friends could do it so she never thought it was anything important. But now she realized she could use it in this situation, specifically, like a tool. She ran through some ideas in her head and felt the tingling as it agreed or disagreed with her assumptions. In moments, she’d worked out the ship was alive, conscious, and she merely needed to think about communicating with it to do so.

Haze picked up one of the old-looking head pieces and handed it to her. “You’ll need to wear this to control the ship,” he said.

Ida quickly said “Actually, no I won’t” and went over to the panel. She had already felt a stronger tingling in her scalp, almost like ASMR, a very pleasurable feeling, but it was also like a contact. As though the ship knew she was there and knew she would be able to direct it.

“It does not want to be controlled,” said Ida, reading the feeling of the ship. “It simply wants to serve and be directed.” She walked over to the panels and placed her hands into the white light that came from them. Instantly her pleasurable feeling intensified and she became one with the ship. Suddenly she could feel the pressure of the atmosphere outside the ship as though it was on her skin, and she could feel the human beings aboard as though they were little movements within her own body.

She closed her eyes and became the ship completely. As though she’d shifted her consciousness into a completely different body. Or had simply become something else. Her life and body faded into memory as she merged with the information.

Her mind was operating at a speed she’d never felt before. So many things she’d questioned or had difficulty understanding were suddenly so clear they were unimportant. It was like she’d tapped into all information in the known universe. She knew she could not take any of this information back with her to her body. Her brain would not be able to hold it. It would be like trying to write down the entire internet on a piece of paper.

Then a piece of more important information came through. They were going to Uranus!

As much as she wanted to stay in this pleasurable environment, she had to remain focused on what she was doing. She had a mission. She thanked the ship and unmerged herself from it. Then she faced Haze. “Uranus?”

If Haze was surprised at her finding out that piece of information so quickly, he didn’t show it.

“Actually, a new planet has just arrived in the solar system full of aliens,” said Haze. “We need to deal with the situation, and you can get us there the fastest. This ship can shift vibrations so that we can pass through the surface of the Earth and not be seen. It also moves faster than light so we can be there in moments. Just connect to the system, imagine the location and we’ll be there.”

Ida looked at the white panels and felt the tingling connection at the back of her head. It was welcoming and friendly. The ship would protect them.

“Okay,” said Ida, feeling a surge of confidence. She put her hands into the light again.

Suddenly they were near Uranus, approaching the biggest ship Ida had ever seen. At least a thousand kilometers, probably more.

She was so surprised she momentarily disconnected and turned to Haze.

He was looking through the glass at the ship and his eyes were wide. Then he recovered his composure. “Humph. I’ve seen bigger,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

Ida knew he was just trying to make her feel more comfortable.

From this distance the ship looked like a very long and flat mountain range. It had lights everywhere and it was reflecting light from Uranus but she couldn’t believe just how long it was. If she could guess it was almost as long as Indonesia. Perhaps similar to the distance between Darwin and Adelaide. Or about the length of New Zealand.

The ship seemed to glow slightly. Perhaps it had an energy shield of some kind.

She suddenly felt very afraid. This ship could easily destroy the Earth, and possibly the sun. What could she do, a 16-year-old girl?

“Look over there,” said Haze.

He pointed to a mass not far from them. A bright light just beyond Uranus. She didn’t know how to judge distances in space but it looked to be further away than the moon was from Earth. She couldn’t remember Uranus having such a large moon.

“It’s a new planet,” said Haze. “The ship and planet arrived together.”

Ida opened her mouth and closed it in shock. Aliens that could simply transport planets around the galaxy… She could feel terror start to well up inside her. She tried to control it with the help of the ship. It was communicating with her, advising her that the ship and planet were here with good intentions. But the fear was intensifying and she could feel her heart pounding, and tears welling up in her eyes. How could she… how could she do anything? What did they want her for? She began to shake, and it began affecting the stability of the ship.

Haze realized that the ship was beginning to get out of control. He could feel the spinning of the ship’s systems under his feet and it seemed to be straining. The view screen had begun to show the stars shifting back and forth. He knew Ida’s state was influencing the flight path but he had no idea how to change it. He could try putting on one of the caps and connecting with the ship, but Ida was heavily integrated now and he didn’t want to be combining minds at this delicate stage.

Ida gripped her temples hard and Haze looked in horror as the IFO launched itself directly at the alien space ship.

4: FIRST CONTACT

“Attention, Ida,” shouted Haze. “Face me. Snap out of it now.”

Ida was shocked. She hadn’t heard Haze shout. She turned to face him.

“Think of the now,” he said, his voice lower and softer. “You are thinking of too many possible futures. Go with the flow and think of just what is happening right now. Do not put meanings on things that you don’t know the meaning of. Think of this situation. A big planet and a big ship. That’s all they are. Until we find out more, that’s all we know. There’s no need for fear. No need for any fear.” Haze looked at her kindly and his voice had a slightly hypnotic effect. She could feel herself calming down.

“There’s nothing to fear,” said Ida, trying to convince herself. She sniffed and wiped away a tear.

“You’re feeling the effects of a higher vibrational level coming from this area of space,” said Haze. “You haven’t quite adjusted to the different vibrations that different aliens present. The side effect of feeling these different vibrations is that your subconscious starts throwing up your old fears without actually telling you what it’s doing. I’ve seen perfectly calm, organized, genius level scientists poop in their pants when they got to meet a real-life alien. Smelt pretty bad at the time,” he said with a grin.

Ida was so surprised at Haze saying the word poop that her fear evaporated, and she laughed.

“Now, we have one rule on this ship,” said Haze, continuing his joke. “No pooping in your pants. That’s an order!”

Ida breathed a sigh of relief but still felt a little bit of fear. If Haze was confident, and he’d had many years’ experience in similar situations, then she really shouldn’t be as afraid as she was. “Aye, aye, captain,” said Ida.

She closed her eyes, realized that the ship had been affected by her fear, steadied it, took a deep breath, then opened them again.

“So, what’s the next step,” she asked.

“If your neighbor knocked on your door, what would you do?” asked Haze.

“Say hi?” asked Ida. “But how? Do we have a mobile or something? I doubt they’ve got the same mobile networks we do!”

“This ship is fitted with a holographic communications system that can transmit through anything,” said Haze.

“Of course it does,” said Ida, sighing. She should really have got over surprises by now.

Just then a voice came through the ship. It seemed to be coming from everywhere but Ida realized the ship was using the vibration of the walls to convey the sound of the message.

“Alien craft,” said an almost guttural voice, “we come in peace.”

Haze indicated to Ida she needed to reply. “That’s your cue!” he said.

“Me?” said Ida. “But I…”

Haze merely raised his eyebrows. “There are many reasons you’re here. This is another one.”

Ida nodded, and placed her hands into the white light, tentatively. It was time to greet the aliens.

—

Aiden knew Sarah would relay his message in the correct language. He waited for the reply.

The disk-shaped ship settled into an orbit around Uranus similar to The Celestial Breeze Space Ship’s orbit, and matched the ship’s speed. Then a medium high voice came via Sarah, translated by the underlying telepathic net. “Hello. This is Ida from Sydney…I mean…Earth, speaking.”

Then they heard another voice. A conversation was happening. “Go on. It’s up to you. I have complete faith in you,” said a deeper voice.

“Um,” said the voice of Ida. “Got it.” There was a pause as though the operator was trying to get something to work. Then a rainbow beam of light shone from the disk ship into the navigation room. A flickering image appeared of a young humanoid woman.

She looked slightly unsure of everything around her but eager to try anything. She seemed to be looking at someone they couldn’t see. “Is this working now?” she asked, then she turned to face forward. “Hi.” said the woman. “I’m Ida.”

“I am Aiden,” said Aiden. “I represent the security of this ship. However, from your vibration I can tell you’re quite peaceful. I’m not sure about the other two males on your craft though.”

Ida stepped out of the light and a tall male in military clothing appeared. “My name is Brigadier Hazelnutcoffee. Welcome to this area of space. We represent the peace-keeping Australian Space Military, and so we’d like to board and investigate your craft to confirm you are here for peaceful intentions only.”

Aiden looked at the other aliens. He remembered the last time someone wanted to board for peaceful intentions. It was that time that they were stuck in a negative reality and aliens with guns staged a peaceful visit then tried to take over. His intuition, though, told him it should be fine this time, and Samantha was also moving her head up and down to indicate a yes. Well, Samantha would know.

“I’m a bit reluctant to just let you on board, as we’ve had some problems in the past,” said Aiden. “What assurance can you give of your peaceful intent?”

The military man in the hologram looked to the side, spoke then moved out of the way. A conversation had taken place and it looked like he was going to defer to the younger female. She appeared.

“Hello again,” said Ida. “I could talk for hours about how peaceful we are but you only have to pick up some of our transmissions to show that sections of humanity do have a dark side. All I can promise is that I personally am not capable or able to do anything negative and I will defend you against any possible negative human that is. I can’t speak for the men I’m with as I’ve only known them an hour, but their focus is protecting the Earth peacefully, so if you can also prove you mean no harm to Earth, we’ll all get along well.”

Aiden thought for a moment. “Alright, come and visit. No guns, though.”

Ida’s image nodded, the hologram dissolved and the beam disappeared.

The aliens looked at each other. “How are they going to come on board?” asked Anneke.

“I’m sure we’ll soon find out,” said Hamish.

Several moments later another beam appeared. It locked onto the side of the Celestial Breeze and created a light corridor that seemed to bleed into the inside of the navigation room. Aiden indicated to Sarah to allow the physical transmission to occur and she relaxed the energy shield around that area of the ship.

Figures began appearing on the other side of the corridor. They seemed to be suspended in time. Amanda fluffed her chest and spoke. “This is symbolic of their peaceful intentions. In that state, they are completely vulnerable and they are trusting us to not hurt them. I believe this is an excellent sign of their development.”

Hamish confirmed the light corridor had locked their vibrations to make the journey. There were three of them. Two males and Ida. They were wearing respirators and glasses as well as tight suits to keep out the cold, but no full body space suits. The beam that projected them protected them from the vacuum and radiation of space.

The Terrans floated the rest of the way, connected with the glass of the navigation room and passed through, settling into the slightly lighter gravity on board. The corridor faded and the new arrivals became aware of their surroundings again.

Ida gave a tiny scream that she quickly covered up with her hands. Hamish could see she’d actually started breathing heavily and was biting her hand, shaking.

She wasn’t used to meeting aliens, then.

This would be interesting, he thought.

5: INTRODUCTIONS

Ida, Haze and John stood in the huge room. Near them were four aliens. A green sloth-like alien with six hairy arms, a giant overweight ant-like alien with huge pincers, a tall, hammer-head shark-like alien wearing bio-mechanical hands and feet, and a woman with red skin.

Ida stared at the woman. She looked human but there was something different about her. Her eyes were slightly larger. Her hair was bright red and thicker than human hair. Her face was wider and seemed to have some raised bones in her forehead, and there were other slight differences that said that she definitely wasn’t from Earth. Or, perhaps not from Earth now.

Haze and John looked at each other but said nothing, slowly and careful taking off their face masks. They weren’t sure what the protocol here was. They’d met many aliens and been on many ships before but those were usually piloted by the same race. This was the first time they’d been on a ship where no two aliens were the same. They couldn’t even figure out if there was a leader or someone who made the decisions. Who should they speak with?

They looked down on their pads and checked the read-outs. The atmosphere was safe enough to breathe, for a length of time. No one seemed to be carrying any weapons. And the amount of technology on board was way ahead of any of the futuristic technology they had at Australian Space Military HQ.

Haze could see Ida had lifted her face mask and was biting her hand. He needed to make this more comfortable for her. He didn’t want to lose her to panic again.

Haze stepped forward and looked at the sloth-like alien. “Hello,” he said. “I greet you on behalf of the United Nations, the Australian Government and the peoples of Earth. I am Haze. Welcome to the Solar system.”

“I am Aiden,” said Aiden. “I also greet you. There are others here that would like to say some official words.”

Ida calmed a bit then. They could speak English? No, something else. There was an echo of something underlying the words. Somehow, she was understanding them in English and even having their lips move similar to the words but it was like a cover over what was really happening. How was she understanding them?

Ida looked down on the pad she was carrying. It was scanning the area and interpreting the alien things for her. Not that it was much better than her eyes and nose, but it could put names to things. She’d found the device had a consciousness too and it had simply given her the ability to use it.

The readings said oxygen and nitrogen were higher, as well as ammonia. She could even smell copper and silver.

She took a breath and coughed slightly, then looked at the other two men. Haze nodded affectionately and encouragingly at her.

There had been too much silence. She had to speak.

“Hello again!” she said, then she laughed, nervously. “Hi, I’m Ida. It’s really nice to meet you all. I’m sorry, I tend to speak a lot when I’m a bit unsure of what to say. I hope that this doesn’t bother you at all. I’m really quite a friendly person.”

Was that friendly smiles she could detect in the faces of the aliens? Even the ant alien looked like it was smiling through those big pincers. Or was it the eyes?

Ida looked down at the pad she was carrying and pointed to it. “This says aliens don’t have names and sometimes choose some based on the civilizations they meet, or they decide their names based on vibration. She looked at the tall hammer-head alien. “It says you’re Hamish. Does that fit?”

Hamish was surprised and nodded, then he turned to Samantha. “I thought you said they were primitive. That they were level 0 at a digital stage.”

Samantha nodded then turned to Ida. “We were talking about the various levels of your civilization before arriving.” Then she turned back to Hamish. “Parts of the world are in poverty and what we’d call ancient development level,” said Samantha. “But other parts are far in advance of the collective consciousness. Terra has risen and fallen four times from a high level of development and now they have a situation of a select few rediscovering what they consider to be advanced technology. I’m guessing this is a secret level 1 organization.”

Ida turned to Samantha and looked her up and down, as though analyzing her nature. “Well,” began Ida, as though also testing an assumption. “You are human, aren’t you!?! From the future? What year are you from?”

Alien Samantha looked surprised. “2063” she answered.

“And,” continued Ida, “as you’re looking surprised at us appearing, this situation mustn’t be in your past. So, from my point of view, you’re from a possible future timeline that may not happen in my time stream.”

Samantha looked at the other Terrans. Could they be that advanced, now? It wasn’t possible. Then she saw the look of surprise on Haze’s face. Perhaps Ida was the advanced one.

Ida realized everyone was looking at her. “Oh, I just watched a lot of science fiction when I was a kid!”

“And what time are you from?” asked Samantha.

“Oh, I’m from this time,” said Ida. “2013”

Haze interrupted, deciding it was time to change the subject, and indicated the three-story high view screen to his left “This is really amazing,” he said. “I wish we had the space to do something like this. How did you get the glass to support itself?”

“Haze!” said Ida, getting her confidence back and deciding perhaps a joke might help. “Can we get to know them first before talking about their toys? Men!”

Anneke gave a squeak that sounded like a laugh. “Same all over the universe.” she said. “Masculine vibration.”

“So, Haze,” began Aiden. “What do you do on your planet?”

Haze smiled and turned to Aiden. “My main job is to oversee the running of our sky traffic system using our quantum entanglement communication monitoring devices, now that Earth is shifting into a higher vibrational level,” he said. “Our domestic flights have already had a couple of collisions with UFOs recently and we need to take the level of solidity and alien flight paths into account. Some of them think that we still can’t feel them!”

Haze hoped giving this very secret information to these aliens would be recognized as a sign of trust and sharing. He noticed the alien’s smiles got bigger. They had understood the symbolism of the gesture.

Ida saw what was happening and joined in. “I’m a student in Sydney. I study and I work in a cafe serving coffee. I’ve been told that I’m a bit of an advanced human so I have some skills with alien technology that I’m not even aware of. I also love meeting new people, I’m single and I’m looking to explore the universe and do lots of really exciting things.”

Then she thought for a moment. Maybe that was too much information.

Hamish looked at Ida, then turned to one of the monitors showing a picture of two smiling eyes. “Sarah, is Ida the one influencing your chattiness circuits?”

“Correct,” said Sarah. The voice of the computer was quiet and friendly.

Ida grinned, feeling more relaxed by the second. Once you get past how different they are it was just like meeting new people at a party. “Wow, I’m already influencing alien circuitry? You’re a supercomputer, aren’t you? An intelligent computer?” She went over to Sarah. “Can you tell me – it’s believed that when we eventually create a real artificial intelligence it will be a reflection of our higher minds. Is this correct?”

Hamish interrupted. “Ida of the Star System Sol is authorized to ask questions of Sarah.”

“Thank you,” said Ida.

“Correct,” replied Sarah. “I contain an amalgamation of recorded knowledge and reflections of the higher minds of all on board the Celestial Breeze and living on Planet Elizabeth. To a greater extent, I am also connected to several representatives in the Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy.”

Ida nodded.

“Ahem,” coughed a young voice. Ida turned to see a smallish humanoid being that could pass for human if he wasn’t so blue. He must be where the silver and copper smells were coming from. Just then she realized that there were other aliens further back in the room. They’d been waiting patiently.

Ida moved her scanner in his direction and read what it said. “Natanial?”

“Close,” he said. “Nathanial. I’m the first contact specialist here.”

“It’s official words time!” said Aiden, with a grin.

Nathanial crossed his arms and put his hands on both sides of his chest. “Though our cultures may be different and body forms may be different, it is through our hearts we recognize that we are one,” he recited, then bowed.

The Terrans bowed too. “We agree. We understand the eternity and connectedness of all life,” said the other Terran. A younger male. “I’m John. I’m very pleased to meet you all.”

The various aliens nodded, bowed, waved hands and blinked in agreement.

Then a large yellow-feathered owl-like alien with a large black beak hopped forward. “As governing representative of the Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy I welcome you to our ship and our mission. I take full responsibility for your well-being while you’re on board and if you need anything at any time, I am the person to contact. Amanda at your service.” She spread her wings and closed them again in welcome.

The Terrans bowed in return.

“So, who is the leader here?” asked Haze.

“We all lead ourselves, but as a group all decisions are made by consensus,” said Amanda. “This is a unique ship in that every person is here purely because of their unique skill. While some of us may have an understanding of another’s skill, there is only one person who is uniquely talented for their particular field. So we’re all leaders in that sense, and all followers in another.”

John looked confused by this. “But, what if a decision is needed and you all have different perspectives and can’t reach a decision on something?”

“Oh,” said Nathanial. “If it is worth discussing, we’ll have a meeting and talk about all the different options. We’ll then decide on it. In that sense, you could say we’re like directors of one of your Terran companies. We get all the available information from everyone and then decide on the best option for all. When a decision is made, all of us know straight away and can see all the options immediately and understand why that decision was made. So, we all reach a consensus.”

“The entire ship and planet of over a billion aliens?” asked Haze, incredulously.

“Yes,” said Amanda, simply. “We’re all telepathically linked for important decisions too.”

Ida took this in, thinking about it and suddenly thinking about that strange message that had appeared in her head just before Haze had arrived at her home. Could that message have come from here? Was it a telepathic call?

She had to find out.

“So,” said Ida, turning to Aiden. “How about a tour?”

Aiden was about to answer when Haze touched his ear contact, then looked startled. He turned to the aliens, concerned. “Have you got another world heading into this system?”

The aliens looked surprised. “Sarah,” said Hamish, “Has a worm hole opened somewhere? Is Alexander on his way back?”

“No, Hamish,” replied Sarah. “Alexander’s moon is still travelling towards the center of the galaxy. What the Terrans have detected is a body on the other side of the elliptic near their star. It is a dark gravity body and it is absorbing energy from Sol. Due to its proximity to the star I cannot read more than that.”

“And you have nothing to do with that?” asked Haze.

“No,” said Hamish. “But we’d be happy to take you there. We’d like to stay in your system for a while and visit your world if you don’t mind, now that quarantine is over.”

“Er,” said John. “That might be a bit of a problem. The population doesn’t know that there has been a quarantine. Most are not even aware that aliens exist.”

The aliens opened their mouths in surprise, then closed them again.

Ida spread her hands and shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I just live there. I only found out about the quarantine an hour ago.”

“Seriously?” asked Hamish. “How could 7 billion people not know that aliens exist? That’s just impossible. More to the point, why not?”

Samantha turned to the group. “For decades, many governments of Terra have told people aliens don’t exist. It’s convenient as everyone is focused on the issue of whether aliens exist and not at the next stage of wondering about the real reason as to why there was a cover up in the first place.”

“Oh,” blustered Haze. “We wanted to um, protect the population. If they found out they might go crazy. Riots. You know.”

Ida looked at him incredulously and Samantha shook her head ever so slightly, but knew not to say anything further. Sensitive issue in this time period.

“Well, let’s talk about that another time,” said Haze. “We need to investigate this other world. If it’s taking energy from the sun, it’s going to affect Earth.” He then indicated to Ida and John to go back to the disk-shaped craft.

“I can take you there in moments,” said Hamish, “and take along your ship too, if you wish.

Ida nodded then looked at the older military man. He nodded back. “As long as you bring the ship,” he said.

“Of course!” said Hamish, and indicated at Anneke to run the calculations.

Ida thought Anneke looked like a giant overweight ant and was surprised to see her tarsus’ whirr over several keypads so fast that she could barely see them.

“Flash jump,” said Anneke, and suddenly they were there, on the other side of Sol, with a massive blue and black sphere, sparking and turning nearby. The Celestial Breeze shuddered, the aliens stumbled, and the alien planet shot towards them at lightning speed.

6: SPECIAL SKILLS

Anneke quickly flashed her tarsus over the keypads even faster, created another flash location for them to move to, and the ships jumped to a position further away.

Moments later the sphere was just a dark, sparkling spot in the navigation window. Analysis was begun and energy could be seen to be being syphoned from the sun into the massive planet.

“Is it a planet or a space craft? We’ve got reports of massive spacecraft using the sun for refueling, but we’ve never got close enough to investigate one,” said John.

“I don’t think so,” said Ida. Suddenly she clutched her head. “EEEDDDAAAAA” said the message again.

“Oh no!” groaned Ida, holding her temples. “It’s alive. It’s what was speaking to me before I got here. It’s calling my name! It must be telepathic.” She closed her eyes to focus, then sighed, opened them again and straightened up as the sound in her head stopped.

“You’re telepathic?” asked Hamish.

Then Ida realized he didn’t move his mouth, and she grinned, sending a message back with her mind. “I must be. Though, this is the first time I’ve used it. Are there many telepathic people on your planet?”

“It’s the standard of communication,” replied Hamish mentally. “Some use it directly like with you now, others use it just as an undercurrent of translation while speaking, which is what we’re all doing via Sarah to be understood. We were going to try and learn your Mandarin language but you arrived too quickly!”

“Actually, we speak English, but thanks,” Ida replied. “But I would have been totally stunned if you had spoken Indonesian!”

Out loud she said, “It’s alive and trying to communicate with me. But it feels muddled, as though it is asleep. I need to speak with it. Find out what it wants.”

Just then Haze held up his hand. He’d had one finger on his earpiece. “I’ve received a report from Earth. Weather patterns are changing. This creature is disturbing the sun, disrupting its normal radiation output. A couple of hurricanes near South America have just doubled in size, and we’re getting more hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons across the planet. Flooding has started in deserts; rainforest rains are suddenly disappearing. We have to stop this thing now before the weather is damaged irreversibly.”

“Would you like one of us to help out on Terra?” asked Aiden. “I can get Jack and his team down there. He’s an expert at controlling weather.”

“Humanoid?” asked John.

“Er, several retractable blue eyes in a large pink shell with one hop foot,” said Nathanial. “His team are Chronese, humanoid insects with huge eyes and antennae, and are bright green.”

“Oh,” said John, turning to Haze.

“We’ll deploy an invisibility shield for them then,” said Haze, and sent a message. “Yes, we’d appreciate their help. They can go back with John.”

Just then there was a flash and Jack and his team appeared, holding all manner of weather control devices. If they didn’t all have friendly smiles on their faces they’d look like a frightening group.

“Thank you,” said Haze. He indicated the light beam connecting their disk-shaped craft, and the Celestial Breeze. John, with his mask back on, took the light path while the weather control crew simply flash-jumped across to the ship and waited for him to arrive.

The disk-ship spun then left, heading back to Terra.

Haze then turned to Ida. “It’s your call now. What next? Can we defeat this creature and its dark gravity?”

Ida sighed. “So melodramatic! Defeat the evil alien armada that could wipe out the human race,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “That’s what you thought about these aliens!”

Haze looked chastened. “Well…”’ he began, then stopped. “We haven’t really met any negative aliens but we’re always on the lookout for them. So, we tend to believe they’re negative first rather than give them the benefit of the doubt. An alien that is causing problems on Earth can’t be given the benefit of the doubt.”

Ida opened her mouth and closed it again. “I understand your position. So, it’s up to me. That’s why I’m really here, isn’t it? Communicate telepathically with aliens. You guys don’t have that skill. So, I need to get closer and communicate with the planet in a way that it’ll recognize me.” She glanced down at her scanner. “Though, these readings are off the scale.”

Haze scratched his chin. “It might be too dangerous if the power levels are so high.”

“No, no,” said Ida. “I mean really off the scale. The device is not even detecting them. We saw the amount of power it’s putting out and sucking in. Dark gravity power is undetectable.”

“Undetectable by your device,” said Sarah. “My instruments detect that the power of the alien is based on a combination of dark gravity energy and magnatheric energy,” said Sarah. “The energy mix is being exchanged via higher dimensions in an inverted vortex. The planet is just an extrusion into this dimension.”

“Of course!” said Samantha, surprised. “I can usually detect the vibrations of star systems normally invisible to most of us. I didn’t think to check this one as we can see it. I can feel an overlay. Another presence within the planet’s space.”

“So this is all that we can see in 4th density and there is a lot more to this alien,” said Haze.

“Yes,” said Hamish. “That alien could be larger than your entire star system, but we can’t see it within this density.”

“I definitely need to meet it,” said Ida. “Do you have a small travel ship or something like that?”

“Yes, come with me,” said Aiden, leaning over and slapping a flash band on her wrist.

Ida looked a bit surprised and Haze made to move forward protectively, but Aiden held up his hand. “It’s a flash band giving her complete access to the ship, and she can remove it at any time.” He indicated the screen that showed a list of tiny addresses.

When Ida put her finger over them they popped up with details in English. She realized her brain must be interpreting them as being in English, with the help of Sarah.

“Locations!” she said, excitedly. “I just press this and I’m there?”

“Yes,” said Aiden. “Choose ‘parking bay’.” He clicked his flash band and disappeared.

Ida was about to reach for her address and click it as she had been caught up in the adventure and confidence of everyone around her, but then she stopped.

What was she doing?

Speaking telepathically, chatting with aliens, influencing alien technology, and now she was simply going to use a new piece of transporting technology that was even faster than the beaming technology used in that TV show called Star Trek. Certainly, faster than Doctor Who’s TARDIS. Was she ready? Could she do this?

She began to feel uncertain again. Was she going to have another panic attack? Then she remembered what Haze had said. Don’t put meanings on things that you haven’t got meanings for. Just accept it and follow through, doing what you need to do.

She looked at Haze who nodded. He understood her confusion. She knew what she had to do.

She put her finger over the addresses again, pressed the address for the parking bay, and closed her eyes.

To be continued

Ida and the Planet Invasion: Part 1

by Neil A. Hogan

Available in digital and in print from Maldek House

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