Category: Short Stories

Close Encounter

The F-35A fighter jet soared effortlessly high above the Nevada plains. The sun had begun its slow march towards the horizon. It was perfect flying weather. “Perfectly boring flying weather,” the pilot thought to himself.

Maybe it wasn’t going to be so boring, after all. His eyes focused towards the dipping sun. A much-smaller shining object was visible off to one side of it.

The pilot lowered his sun visor and leaned forward. It wasn’t glare off of the canopy. The light drifted upwards and away from the sun. Something was definitely there.

“Nellis Control, Demon one-five has a visual on unidentified aircraft ten miles ahead. Please Advise.” The aircraft continued to nose up and away from the sun, but was still too far away to make out. He slowly started closing the distance.

“This is Nellis Control, we read you. Aircraft is unidentified and unresponsive. Permission granted to intercept.”

“Roger Nellis Control. Demon one-five moving to intercept.” The UFO had accelerated. The pilot increased his thrust, breaking the speed of sound to catch up.

The jet fighter quickly caught up with the other aircraft. The pilot whistled as he approached the UFO from behind. He flipped a switch on his control panel. “Nellis Control, are you getting this video feed?”

The aircraft was like nothing he had seen. The sleek vehicle had only stubs for wings and stabilizers. Two jet ports glowed a brilliant blue behind the craft. Dipping down, the pilot could see four more angled ports gently glowing the same blue underneath the aircraft.

The pilot jumped as his radio crackled to life. “Demon one-five, Nellis Control is receiving your transmission. What in God’s name? Demon four and Demon one-two are en route to your location. Acknowledge.”

“Understood.” The pilot flipped up his sun visor and accelerated alongside the aircraft. It pulled away suddenly as he reached the cockpit. The pilot banked to follow.

The UFO accelerated up and to the right at a high rate of speed. The pilot pulled back and urged the jet fighter upwards. The UFO shot forward, accelerating at what should not have been a survivable rate.

The pilot gritted his teeth and went full throttle. The jet fighter screamed as it raced to mach 1.5. The UFO slowly grew larger in his field of view. It suddenly veered left again. The UFO pulled away as the jet fighter slowed. The pilot couldn’t bank that hard without tearing the jet in half.

“Nellis Control, Demon one-five. Be advised UFO is making evasive maneuvers.”

“Demon  one-five, Nellis acknowledges. Fighters are in the air, over.”

“Roger.” The pilot grimaced as he straightened the fighter and began climbing rapidly. The UFO was performing maneuvers that even the most advanced aircraft would be unable to duplicate.

The pilot once again pulled into line behind the UFO. He crept up on it at the speed of sound. He suddenly veered the plane left as alarms sounded in the cockpit.

The jet fighter rocketed past the UFO. The pilot started bringing the jet around in a wide circle. “Nellis Control, Demon one-five. The UFO… stopped.”

A pregnant pause followed. “Demon one-five, repeat. The UFO stopped?”

The pilot stared at the stationary UFO as he came around with the jet fighter. “It’s just hanging there. Air speed appears to be zero.”

“Demon one-five, Nellis confirms on radar.”

“What in the hell…” The pilot maneuvered the jet fighter to fly past the nose of the UFO. He closed the distance rapidly.

The UFO accelerated up and away before the jet fighter could reach it. The UFO turned upwards sharply, looping through the air. It settled in behind the jet fighter.

Alarms went off around the pilot. “Nellis Control, Demon one-five. UFO is now a bogey on my six.” He veered to the right and gunned the throttle.

The UFO effortlessly followed the pilot’s evasive maneuvers. The jet fighter suddenly leveled out and began to decelerate. “Nellis…” Static roared through his headset before the radio cut out completely.

The jet fighter experienced flame out before losing power entirely. The pilot listened helplessly to the roar of the wind slipping over the aircraft. He continued to slow. The pilot turned to see that the UFO remained behind him.

The pilot looked around in confusion. His visual cues told him the jet had come to a complete stop, but it was not tumbling towards the earth. The UFO remained behind him.

After a time, the UFO nosed forward and overtook the stationary fighter jet. It turned about and hung motionless before the helpless aircraft. The cockpit glass was mirrored blue, hiding the occupants behind it.

The glass suddenly split down the middle. The two pieces slid upwards and backwards, revealing the two pilots controlling the UFO. Both were human. One appeared to be an older version of the pilot in the fighter jet. A thick scar ran down one side of his face.

The pilot’s radio crackled to life. The words coming through synced up with his older doppelganger’s lips. “How’s it going, ace?”

The pilot stared, mouth agape. “Yeah, crazy shit. Look, I don’t have a lot of time. Do me a favor and tighten your harness, would you?”

The pilot numbly looked down at his harness. It was loosened slightly to allow him a greater degree of motion. He cinched it down and looked back up.

The older version of the pilot grinned broadly. He undid his own harness and stood up. “It’s been a hell of a long time since I’ve been able to do that. Thank you.” He sat back down and secured his harness.

“It’s time for us to go. You’re about to lose a ninety-four million dollar jet, but it’s not your fault… or mine. Damn Chinese parts, anyway. Ciao!”

The glass canopy closed over the waving older pilot as the UFO began to back away. The strange craft turned away from the jet and rocketed away in a flare of blue light. Two more jet fighters rocketed past the stationary jet in pursuit of the UFO.

The sleek aircraft easily outpaced the jet fighters before disappearing entirely in a brilliant flash of light. The pilot’s jet fighter suddenly came back to life. The jet’s systems came back online as the engines reignited. The jet fighter quickly accelerated close to mach 1.

A loud crack issued from somewhere ahead of the cockpit. Thick black smoke rolled out from behind the instrument panel. Multiple alarms started screaming at him. The screen before him indicated “General Control Failure”.

The jet fighter rolled sharply to the right before the pilot could do anything. The aircraft drifted nose-down and began accelerating dramatically. He pulled the eject handle as the jet fighter began to spin.

The pilot rocketed up and out of the jet fighter. Debris slammed hard off the side of his face as he went. He blacked out from the blow. The jet continued its suicidal trajectory, slamming into the ground below and exploding.

The pilot woke up on the ground a short while later, still strapped into his seat. He groaned, gently touching the large gash in the side of his face. “The scar,” he croaked. His vision faded again as the sound of emergency vehicles floated to him from a distance.

An Interlude: Part 4

An Interlude | An Interlude Continues | An Interlude: Part 3

Jacob stared slack-jawed at the group of pirates surrounding him. He looked to Fred. The old farmhand gave him a grumpy look in return. “Bastards stole my costume idea!”

“So…” Jacob turned back to the captain. “We’ll just get going. I mean, if it’s all the same to you…”

“It’s not!” The pirates cheered behind Jacob and Fred. “Ye board me boat without permission. Then you try to plunder me gold! Now you jest wanna be wandering off.”

“We all should be wandering off, about now.” Fred jabbed a bony finger off towards the starboard side of the ship.

Approaching swiftly was a sleek, black galleon like their own. It ran orange, web-like sails. It slid sideways in the water to come broadside to their own ship.

“Hell and damnation! To arms, men! To arms!” The captain turned to Fred and Jacob. “You will fight beside us, or I will put you to Davy Jones right now.”

Jacob shrugged, grimacing. “Yeah, sure! Sounds great.”

Fred spit on the deck. “Can I just watch?”

The captain growled, pulling his pistol. The deck shook beneath them before he could do much more. “They’ve opened fire!” He ran towards the starboard side of the ship.

“To arms! Run out the canons and give them hell, boys!” The captain shot his pistol at one of the ninjas on the other ship.

“Wait… They’re fucking ninjas?” Jacob looked at Fred.

The old farmhand shook his head slowly. “We’ve been doing this for a while now, junior. Gotta admit I’m a little off that you’d be surprised by this point.”

Jacob raised his eyebrows and looked off to one side. “Fair point.” The deck slid violently underneath them. “What in the hell?”

“They’re boarding us!” The captain cried out to his crew. “To pistols and cutlasses! Don’t give up the ship!”

A dozen or more black-clad ninjas jumped and rolled from one ship to the other. They kicked, punched, and pinwheeled as they squared off with the pirates. Cries of “WaaAHH!” and “ARGH!” broke out across the deck of the ship as pistols fired and padded feet thumped off chests.

The captain leveled his pistol and fired off a shot, hitting one of the ninjas. He screamed dramatically before flailing overboard. Another ninja back-flipped up to the captain and kicked the pistol out of his hand.

“ARGH!” The captain pulled out his cutlass and laid open the ninja’s chest. Another ninja kicked the sword from his hand. The captain wheeled around and punched the ninja square in the face, knocking him out.

He shook his fist out and picked his cutlass up from the deck. “There’s too many to put down, lads!”

Fred turned around wearing red and blue 3-D glasses. “This shit looks so real!” He turned to Jacob. “Hey, where’s yours?”

“Aye! You… magic man!” The captain pointed at Fred. “Surely you can do something!”

Jacob nodded. “Yeah, Captain Jackass! Save us already, would ya?”

Fred puffed out his muscular chest, red spandex stretching. A long blue cape billowed out behind him. The black silhouette of a donkey was painted on the front of his shirt. “Captain Jackass to the rescue!”

The farmhand-turned-superhero ran forward, bellowing as he went. The captain pumped his fist, grinning and yelling. Fred pushed the ninjas to one side and leaped right over the edge of the ship.

Jacob ran up to the side and peered over. Fred quickly disappeared under the water, sinking like a stone. “He’s run off! That stupid son of a…”

“HEEYAHHHH!” One of the ninjas dropped a karate chop across the nape of Jacob’s neck.

“OW! You dick!” Jacob shoved the ninja back and pulled out his broadsword. The ninja ran forward right onto the tip of the weapon. He collapsed onto Jacob, pinning him to the ground.

Two other ninjas ran over and started kicking at him. Jacob pushed and shoved at the dead ninja on top of him in a bid for freedom. All three men froze at the sound of an earth-shattering roar.

Jacob looked across the deck. A ninja stood with his foot sitting squarely on poor little Shadow’s tail. The kitten looked… upset.

Shadow’s head suddenly grew by several orders of magnitude, its gaping maw full of glistening, needle-like metallic fangs. He sank them into the ninja’s leg and shook his head violently.

The rest of Shadow’s body grew to giant proportions, muscles rippling and contracting. He tossed the ninja’s severed leg into the air and swallowed it whole. He turned on the other ninjas, which started backing away nervously.

Jacob shoved the dead ninja from him and pulled himself up. The captain came to his side. He was staring wide-eyed at Shadow. “That’s uh… That is one interesting pet ye have, there.”

“Yeah…” Jacob grinned. “He’s a… special breed.”

Shadow jumped from one ninja to the other, mauling and eviscerating them as he went. The ninjas fortunate enough to have avoided the enraged kitten wisely chose to run for their own galleon. Shadow finally sat down and watched patiently as the remaining ninjas jumped ship.

The remaining pirates cheered as the ninja ship pushed off from their own and put distance on it. Shadow rippled and shrank back down to his former diminutive self. He let out a small mew as Jacob scooped him up.

“Not bad, little fella!” He put the wee kitten back on his shoulder. “Sure glad you’re on my side.”

Everyone jumped as a spout of water shot up beside the galleon. In it rose Fred, who arced through the air and crashed down onto the deck. He immediately sprang to his feet, brushing his cape back. “I have returned once more again!”

The captain stepped forward, grimacing. “Ye scurvy dog! Ye ran off and hid while the rest of us fought for our very lives!”

“Yeah! The god-damned kitten saved us!” Jacob smiled at Shadow.

Fred stared. “The cat… Jacob, did you get hit on the head again, son?” He turned back to the captain. “And I did not hide! I’ve been down below saving your lives!”

“Right! How’s that, now? Did you ask the mermaids fer help, then?” The captain sneered.

“Naw. They wouldn’t talk to me. I flipped ’em off!” He spit to one side. “Nope! I pulled the plug.”

Jacob shook his head. “I’m scared to ask, but… You pulled the plug?”

Fred nodded proudly. “When you want to be done playing with yer bath toys, what do ya do? You pull the plug!”

“Oh, god.” Jacob ran over to the side of the galleon and stared down. A funnel was forming between the two battered ships. The galleons had begun to slowly spin around it.

The captain stood beside him. He had gone white as a sheet. “Are you fecking mad!” He turned to his men. “VORTEX! We’re going down, mates! Get right with god, for you’ll be meeting him in short order!”

The other pirates started shouting. Some ran around in circles. A couple jumped overboard, hellbent on ending their suffering quickly. The captain bounded into his cabin and slammed the door shut.

Jacob ran back to Fred and shook him by the shoulders. “What in the hell were you thinking!”

Fred looked nonplussed. “Well, it always worked when I was a kid.”

“We’re not toys!” He grabbed at his his hair and stared at the deck. “What do we do?” He looked up. “What happens when we reach the bottom?”

“Hmm… Hadn’t thought about that.” Fred rubbed at the stubble on his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

Jacob raced back to the side of the galleon. The wind howled as the two ships raced along the edge of the spreading water funnel. He could now clearly see a cavernous hole at the bottom.

“I guess we’re going to find out real soon.” He stared at Shadow. The kitten mewed questioningly.