STARLIGHT

iUniverse, Inc.

Contents

Chapter One: Once Upon a Time..............................1Chapter Two: Meeting Milo..................................5Chapter Three: History Lesson..............................18Chapter Four: The Time Machine.............................22Chapter Five: Signs........................................28Chapter Six: Abduction.....................................34Chapter Seven: Killing the Dinosaurs.......................43Chapter Eight: Technology..................................49Chapter Nine: Topside Meeting..............................63Chapter Ten: To the Moon, Alice!...........................75Chapter Eleven: The Mission................................86Chapter Twelve: The Planets and Beyond.....................90Chapter Thirteen: First Jump...............................97Chapter Fourteen: The Triads...............................103Chapter Fifteen: Intergalactic.............................107Chapter Sixteen: Milky Way Return..........................112Chapter Seventeen: Debriefing..............................117About the Author...........................................121

Chapter One

So. Here I am, in the middle of doing a mission for alien life forms and wondering if what I'm doing is right. I say alien, but in reality, they have been on Earth longer than humans have. I still refer to them as aliens, but I wish most of the time we humans could be more like them. I am a widower, and I know that my late wife, Karol, would have loved them. She loved to see people do the right thing and think of others. I miss her terribly, but I still have my work and the animals at home.

Maybe I should introduce myself. My name is George Washington MacAllister. I'm currently teaching astronomy to ninth and tenth graders at Treasure Coast High School in Vero Beach, Florida. I typically teach biology and earth science as well, but this year I only have four classes of astronomy students, three of which are honors students. The students, of course, refer to me as Big Mac, except in the classroom, where it's Mr. Mac. I am one of the middle-aged teachers. Think of a Dennis Quaid type with glasses and salt- and-pepper hair. I still believe a teacher should dress better than the students do, so I usually wear dress pants, shirt, and a tie. Of course, here in Florida, a jacket isn't usually necessary.

Vero Beach is located on the eastern coast of Florida. It is called the Treasure Coast because of all the Spanish ships that were sunk during hurricanes in the early eighteenth century, losing their cargos and crews. Their cargo was mainly Incan gold and silver going back to Spain. The Spaniards salvaged quite a bit of the treasure, but much of it is still here. The town of Vero Beach retains some of its old Florida charm, but now it is seeing more and more development as the population moves northward out of Miami.

This mission I was asked to do is not any kind of plot against mankind, governments, or anyone in particular. Some big mission, right? Well, for me, it is. I suppose I should tell you more about how this came about ... and what it is. Please remember that I am a teacher and not a professional writer, and sometimes I explain things in too much detail. So please be patient. Here goes.

It was a cold and rainy night. Wait, wrong story. Actually, it was a beautiful evening, and I was sitting on the sand dunes at Vero Beach, looking at the sky. Vero Beach is not a wide, flat beach like most in Florida; instead, it has rather steep dunes and a shorter beach. Karol and I used to walk up and down the beach and dunes and watch the people with metal detectors looking for some of the old "pieces of eight," as they are called. Occasionally, we saw someone actually find one, and he or she would be so excited and proud.

That evening, there was supposed to be a meteor shower, and Vero Beach was one of the best places for viewing, looking east with very little artificial light. The Atlantic Ocean was flat, with hardly a ripple. A thunderstorm had passed through in the afternoon, and everything was still. I was thinking back over the day at school and one of my astronomy classes in particular.

The school year had started several weeks earlier, and we were just getting into the formation of stars and planets and all the mechanics of the universe. We started with the "Big Bang," as it is called, or the "Big Flash," as I call it. We were discussing the development of the first electrons and protons from radiation into the formation of the first hydrogen atoms. Then the atoms grouped together to form clouds, and then the clouds grouped together to form protostars, protoplanets, and such.

"Then, when enough hydrogen had joined together by gravity to form a star, it would ignite into a nuclear fire and try to blast itself apart," I was explaining. "The star would try to collapse from gravity, so we ended up with a tug-of-war between gravity and expulsion. This continued until the hydrogen was exhausted enough for the star to collapse. The hydrogen was converted to helium and light was given off in the form of photons, creating a star. Our sun is one. The planets started forming at the same time, and we ended up with a solar system. We'll cover the physics of this later in the course. And don't worry-our sun isn't going to burn out for several billion years." A hand went up in the middle of the room. "Jonathan, you have a question?"

"Yes, Mr. Mac. I was told by someone that they were told the earth is only about ten thousand years old. How can that be?" Jonathan asked.

"Some religious leaders teach that, but we will not discuss or argue any religious ideas in this class," I said. "We will only go by the generally accepted scientific facts available at the present time. Remember that theories can and do change as knowledge increases. Up until 1947, it was said that machines could not possibly fly faster than the speed of sound. Chuck Yeager proved this wrong. The problem wasn't that the speed of sound couldn't be passed, but that the planes built at that time started coming apart from the vibrations created when hitting that speed. The X-1 was designed well enough to withstand this, and the rest is history."

I looked at one of the girls waving her hand. "Wanda, you have a question?"

"Did life originate soon after the earth was formed?" she asked.

"No," I replied. "To the best of our present scientific knowledge, the Big Flash happened about thirteen and a half to fifteen billion years ago. The Milky Way started forming about ten billion years ago, and our solar system and planets formed around four and a half to five billion years ago. The earth was not a friendly place at that time-it was very hot, with volcanoes everywhere, and there was hardly any oxygen. The air was mostly carbon dioxide, water vapor, and nitrogen. This has been called the Hadean period, from the Greek word Hades, or underworld, which we commonly refer to as hell. Sometime during the next billion years, after the earth had cooled somewhat, life started, evolving into microbes that could duplicate themselves. And later they started using sunlight for energy and C[O.sub.2], giving off oxygen as a waste product. This is called photosynthesis. Lucky for us, right? Most of this stuff will be covered in your biology class, so just take my word for now."

Another hand shot up. "Question,...