Beyond our Earth

36: Alluring

~~~~~~~~Braden's POV~~~~~~~~

I asked to have a drink of water, telling Albert I was parched from the dry heat. He disappeared into the house, leaving us alone in the massive observatory.

I smiled at Elizabeth.

Once he was far enough away I spoke. "Let's see if we can find those photos." I said.

She looked around, taking in the emptiness.

"There's nothing but machines and wires, Braden."

My eyes searched around the place. "What's that up there? An office, right? Look there's a door to a little room up those steps."

The stairs to that office were so steep they could have equally been called a ladder.

I went to them, placing my hands on the rails and testing the first step.

For some reason it worried me. It would be incredibly difficult to get in and out of that office quickly before Albert came back.

But I went for it.

"Stall for me." I called down from the top of the stairs.

I opened the door inwards and stepped into the little room. It was all dark, so I had to feel around for a light switch.

Finally I hit something, flicked it up, and the lights came on.

There was one desk and one office chair. Papers were scattered all over the desk, with diagrams, charts, and numbers scrawled across them. A few shelves on the opposite wall held file folders.

I ruffled through the papers that lay out in the open, but found nothing of interest. Then I hit the files, but realized they were only a more organized version of the stuff he had out on his desk. That was when I heard his voice.

"He'll have to come drink it out here, can't have any of that water spilling around all that electrical equipment."

I was down the steps in a flash, bolting outside before he thought anything was fishy.

Thankfully Elizabeth was already out there, making small talk with him to keep him distracted.

As I drank from the water, now actually thirsty, I realized I had forgotten to turn the light off in his office.

"Can you tell us a little about your experience with extra terrestrials now, anything you've learned about them?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well, there's lots to know about extra terrestrials. For one, they're a lot more common than you'd think. Now, a lot of 'em use us for research, but there's two main types of extra terrestrials. There's the kind that abducts us, does experiments on us, then releases us. But there's also the kind that keeps us. You don't want to be abducted by that kind. You'll live your life as a lab animal if y'do. The knid that releases us, usually sets something in us. It'll return in a number of years to see how it's experiment's doing. Usually if you're abducted once you'll be abducted again in the future. And it doesn't matter where you go, they can always find you. Mind you, they're usually harmless. But people who get abducted by the other kind, well, they never come back." He said.

"There's got to be a way to get her back." I said.

"Well, you can't build yourself a spaceship with all the money in the world that could catch up to theirs, and you shouldn't try. Look at this girl, right here in front of ya. She's a pretty one, got to care about ya to come all the way here with ya."

"There has to be a way to get to Sara." I said.

"Maybe it's out of our control, Braden." Elizabeth said, touching my shoulder.

She's just eating up all of his little comments, isn't she.

"What if I got abducted?" I said. "I could commandeer their ship, and use it to get to Sara."

"Are you crazy? You don't know how to drive a human spaceship, let alone one made by aliens."

"Extra terrestrials!" Albert shouted, startling me.

"I could do it, couldn't I? I could get abducted. Come on Albert, help me out here. There's got to be a place where abductions are more common, right?" I asked frantically.

"Nullarbor Plain, Australia" Albert Answered. "There are a lot of UFO hot spot in the world, but this is the one where the UFOs come to get ya. They'll chase cars up and down that isolated stretch of land until the sun comes up."

I smiled.

"Perfect."