CHAPTER ONE

"Quickly Sargent, bring all communications on line, and contact the mother ship."

 "Yes Sir!"

 "Private, bring all engines on line and engage all shields."

 "I said, Bring all engines on line, Private! Private? Private? Where is Private?"

 "He said something about having to get a few things," Sargent said in a worried tone. 

"That idiot! He knows how the commander feels about research ships docking late!" The captain belted out.

 "Here he is now Sir." The Sargent said in a relieved tone.

 "Private, what makes you think..."

 "Captain. I promised the landing crew on the old M.S. some Earth treasures."

 "Treasures?" The captain asked skeptically as he looked at all the stuff on Private's station.

 "Yes! Aren't they great? Besides, it was the only way I could get us our preferred landing port." The private said with a smile.

 "We don't have time for this! Get those engines on line now!"

 "Sargent, have you contacted the mother ship?"

"No Sir all there has been no response."

 "Maybe they are late," Private said, then felt the captains breath on his neck

."Mother ship Commander Green is a lot of things, but late is certainly not one of them."

 "Um Captain, we have a problem." The Sargent said in a worried tone.

 The captain turned to look just as the Sargent was pulling out a bunch of tangled, burnt wires out from under a panel that was in front of where he was sitting.

 "Switch to me the Sargent managed to switch over to emergency contact regency contact." The captain ordered.

 When the Sargent had managed to activate the emergency system, a look of horror came over the Sergeants face.

 "Report!" the Captain barked.

 "The Mother ship is gone!" The Sargent yelled.

 "No sweat Captain, Old Betsy has plenty of boost power. They have what, a five-minute head start on us. Betsy can make up for that easy." Private said as he brought all the engines back all online.

 The Sargent was silent as he read through all the messages. After what seemed like forever, he finally spoke.

 "All Mother ships were recalled five years ago. Our home planet of Gein came under attack from the combined forces of Horg and Jump. All Motherships were recalled helping fight the attackers.

 "Well, give me a little time and I should be able to modify the J.J.2 chambers and make some tweaks in the..."

 "Shut up private! No number of modifications to our engines can get us home! That is why we invented Mother ships.

 Suddenly massive went off all around the ship,

 "What is going on?" The Captain yelled.

 "Because our main computer communication channel is down, the shield protecting transmission is probably fried as well." The Sargent explained.

 "Meaning?" The captain asked.

 "Well sir, when we employed the emergency signal, the humans were probably able to detect it, those the welcome to earth bombs that are falling all around us.

 "Sargent Direct all but engine power to our shield! Private, get us out of here as soon as possible!"

 "To where Sir?" Private asked.

 When The Captain turned to answer, the Private was downing a frosted donut that he had brought back when gathering his "souvenirs.”

 "How can you eat at a time like this?"

 "I left this morning before breakfast," he told his Captain.

 "Put that down and get us out of the range of those fighters, before our ship winds up looking like a donut...or worse."

 Several more explosions went off before Private was able to launch the ship. The ship raddled and shook tremendously but was out of sight before the fighter planes could make their next pass. They bombed the spot where the ship was several more times before returning to their base.

A good distance out of range, sat an alien ship that had been sent on a ten-year mission to study humans, they were glad their mission was over and were more than ready to return home.

 "What now?" The Sargent asked slowly.

 "It appears we have no choice but to active emergency Program X" The Captain stated.

 "But Captain, we have no idea what that will do." The Private protested.

 The captain gave his crew a stern look.

 "The Gein scientist built this program into each Research ship. No, they did not give us details on what that program was all about, or what it would do, but simply labeled as 'emergency' should be enough for us to trust it. Regardless, I do not see where we have much choice."

 The Captain went over to his control panel and typed in a few codes. He then went back and sat down in his command chair. His main computer hummed and hissed. It final made this command.

 “One, it is best to find a suitable place to land where the chances of being detected by native forces are slim. The computer showed a map that pointed to its calculated safest spot. It is recommended to set a course for this location.”

 The Captain transferred the location to the private.

 “Second, lock down all unnecessary power uses, Life support and minimum shields.”

The Sargent compiled.

 “Further instructions will come after those two assignments have been carried out.”

 The program went silent.

 The location that the program had selected would indeed be safe from the detective devices that earth had available at that time. However, with all unnecessary systems shut down, the private would have to negotiate the mountainous region on manual. Despite the tricky maneuvers the private had to preform to land their ship safely, he continued to down the rest of the donuts he had brought in board. With the ship securely locked into a safe landing spot, the cloak and shields were engaged. As soon as those instructions were completed, the computer begin the second set of instructions from program X.

 Their species have been exploring the far reaches of space for many eons. The Gein’s can fit right in with almost any species they encounter due to their simulation suits. For those that were assigned to earth, it was a little more challenging to fit in. Almost every other species, that the Gein had chosen to mingle with, their style of dress and grooming, as well as their expressions in their speech, did not change, at least not much. For this group, their assignment had been the 1960’s. As it turned out, this was the perfect group of Geins, they fit right in. As much as they loved the people and the culture of that time, they did long to go home.

 When the computer had finished its next set of instructions, The Captain divided up the tasks. The Sergeants focus was to be doing his best to restore the emergency distress signal, without alerting the entire planets defense systems.

 “Captain, we do not have near enough supplies on board for me to even begin repairs.” The Sargent complained.

 Then we will just have to improvise with whatever parts we can get here. For the last two years, they had posed as scientist and had been working in one of the space labs.

 “Captain, you have seen how primitive human technology in this period is. There is no way that even someone with my talents could possibly…”

 “At ease there Sargent!” The Captain shouted.

 “I expect you to maintain discipline and follow orders. A Gein officer never gives in to doubt, and never gives up! So, tomorrow morning we will go to the space lab and see what we can get our hands on.” The Captain said in a firm tone.

 “Captain, the last time I was at the base, I contacted a female sales woman that was nice and helpful. She has contacts with the nearby military base. Maybe she could help us as well.” The Private suggested as he reached for another donut.

 The Captain slapped the donut out of the Privates hand.

 “If you don’t stop eating those things you will not be able to get out of your chair!”

 The next morning the three used a little of the ships energy to transport to the garage where they had left the black sedan that they had been using for the last two years. They drove to the company that the saleswoman that Private had met, worked.

 Private entered the building and about twenty minutes later, returned with a huge grin on his face.

 “Alright Private, wipe that grin off your smug face and report!” The Cptain ordered.

“Well Sir, I have just successfully negotiated our way on to one of the top military bases in this country.” Private said with an air of pride.

 “Watch your tone private, what did this negotiation cost us? The Captain asked.

 “We simply provide transportation for Sara and three boxes of equipment she needs to deliver to the base.”

 The Sargent looked at the Captain,

 “Sounds way too easy to me.” The Sargent mumbled.

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The Sargent pulled the car around the back of the building and the three got out and picked up the boxes and put them in the trunk. Two minutes later Sara came out and headed towards the car. Private helped her in.

 “Uncle, this is the young lady I told you about.”

 “Sara, this is my Uncle Lee.”

 “A pleasure to meet you, Percy has told me a lot about you.” Sara said as she held out her hand.

 “The pleasure is all mine.” The Captain responded to Sara.

 The look in his eyes told Private that he would have a lot of explaining to do.

 “So, tell me Sara, what exactly is it that Percy has told you about us?” The Captain asked.

 “Well Uncle, all I simply…”

 The Captain put his hand over the Privates mouth.

 “Mind your manners there Percy, I asked young Sara to explain. Now please Sara, what has Percy told you.?” The Captain asked ask Sara as he removed his hand from Percy’s mouth.

 “Well, because of my line of work, he had enough trust in me to let me know that you three were hired by the U.S. government to conduct some pretty high-level experiments. I can only assume that it has to do with our struggles with the communists. I understand that you are not allow to confirm or deny any of that, but somehow I have come to trust what Percy says,” Sara stated shyly.

 “I guess part of it is that I wanted to play a bigger role in defending our country, and if I had a chance to work along with your team, that would be my contribution to the cause.” Sara stated proudly.

 “Work along with our team?” The Captain repeated as he looked at Percy.

 Percy ah just popped a hand full of candy into his mouth. He swallowed hard, almost chocking.

 “Um yes, (cough, cough, clears throat) you see Uncle, I told Sara because she could get us clearance on to the base without us having to expose our identities, that it would probably be a good idea if she stayed with us while we were there. With her background in high tech equipment, she would be able to assists us in removing the pieces that we will require to take to our lab to study more closely. You know to look for any signs that they might have been tampered with.” Percy said quite confidently at the end.

 “Ah, I see, well that might come in handy. Ms. Sara, are you sure you don’t mind, I mean I would not want you to get in trouble with your company?” The Captain asked.

 “Oh no problem at all! This will be an adventure for me.” Sara said excitedly.

“It will be for us all.” The captain mumbled.

 As the approached the base, Sargent turned his head and asked.

 “Um which gate should we use?”

 Sara looked at her watch.

 “Today is Tuesday and it is almost 10:00. We better use gate#6, she instructed.

 “Chad should be a t gate #6 today, he owes me a couple of favors,” Sara said with a smile.

 “When you get close to the guard house, pull off to the side and let me go in,” Sara instructed.

 The Sargent did as she requested, and she went in.

 “I don’t like this; you better be prepared to get us out of here if this doesn’t work.” The Captain ordered.

 “It will work sir; she knows what she is doing.” The Private stated.

 “I have heard that before,” The Sargent mumbled

 The Sergeant was just about to back the car up when Sara came back with four base passes.

 She was breathing a little heavy, so Percy asked if she was, okay?

 Turning red faced, she smiled.

 “Um, Chad sometimes is a hard sell.”

 “Resourceful girl.” The Sargent mumbled.

 The Captain slugged his arm.

 “Building D is where we need to go first. Park near the door. We can drop off some of this here, and take the tunnels below to the other buildings,” Sara instructed.

 They gathered the boxes and followed here into the building. Sara took one of the boxes up to the counter.

 “Ah the beautiful Ms. Sara Parker. What brings you to my building…other than me?” the officer asked.

 “Strictly business, Private.” Sara responded sharply.

 He leaned over the counter a bit.

 “Now Sara, you don’t have to be so formal with me, it is not like anyone…”

 It was at that moment that he noticed the other three standing at a distance.

 “Well, you must have gotten a promotion, to have three flunkies to carry your boxes for you.”

 “Watch your step Private! These flunkies are new transfers on to the base. From what I understand you will be carrying boxes for them soon if you are not careful.” Sara said with raised eyebrows.

 “Well, if they are transfers, how come there is no record of them in my pile of records?”

 “Really? Listen Private, they have base passes. You know the militaries history of getting these things straight. Now be a good boy, and behave yourself, and maybe I will come tell you good-bye on my way out.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek and led the four of them to the elevators that took them to the tunnels.

 “Yep, a resourceful girl indeed.” The Sargent said and dodged the Captain’s punch.

 When in the elevators, Sara pointed out a map of the base.

 Your passes give you a level III clearance, that was the best I could do. That allows you in to all places other than those marked in red. I need to take these other boxes to supply and make a few other stops.”

 “Thanks Sara,” Percy said.

 She grabbed his arm,

 “No, thank you, thank all of you. I look forward to doing all I can to help. I will meet back up with you in the cafeteria at lunch.

 The elevator stopped and she headed down on of the tunnels. She called out to them,

 “There are maps throughout the tunnels, but I am sure you guys know your way around military bases.”

 “Okay private, let’s find the parts we need and get out of here as quick as possible.” The Captain ordered.

 “What about Sara?” The Private asked.

 “As the Sargent keeps putting out, she is a resourceful girl, I am sure she can manage.”

 “Now where do we need to go first?”

 “Captain, I don’t think…”

 “That is correct Private. I think, you do. Now which way?”

 The Private checked the map again.

 “This way sir.”