Coming Home Again

By "Scott" "Roche"

Captain Maximillian Blair had always hoped to discover there was life on other planets. His job at one of the government's most secure research facilities put him in the position to learn the truth, one way or another. When he met a stranger from the stars, he didn't expect to to be charged with discovering the man's secrets at any cost. Or to fall in love. How deadly would the truth prove to be? And can his love be the world's salvation or will it be its damnation?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scribl
• Release date: Apr 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9781633480483

"Scott" "Roche"

Scott Roche is an author, podcaster, and publisher. His work has been published in a number of anthologies. He's available for birthday parties, bar-mitzvahs, quinceaneras, and anywhere else cake is served. A Christian and an avid fan of horror, he believes that there is beauty to be found everywhere.

Book preview

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Coming Home Again

About The Author

Coming Home Again

by

Scott Roche

Edited by Julayne Hughes

Published by

Coming Home Again

Copyright © 2016 Scott Roche

All rights reserved.

No part of this story may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written consent of the author.

Unauthorized duplication in any media is a violation of the international copyright laws and will be prosecuted.

Published by Iron Kilt Productions.

Cover art by Brain Circuit Designs (braincircuitdesigns.com)

The story presented is a work of fiction. People, places, events, and situations are the product of the author’s imagination.

Any similarity to actual people, places, and events is purely coincidental.

DEDICATION

To my beautiful wife, her endless patience, and making our house into a home.

Coming Home Again

By Scott Roche

Captain Maximillian Blair’s first coffee of the morning hit his desk hard and sloshed over the paper cup’s lip. He raised an eyebrow at Langstrom. We’ve done what?

Langstrom smiled broadly from his seat on the other side of Blair’s desk. Made contact with an unidentified flying object. Someone called us from his flying saucer. He claims to be a former United States Air Force pilot who disappeared in 1948. I want you to be there when we meet him. Check him out and see if he’s who and what he says. The top of the man’s head glistened with sweat, dark skin a contrast against the silver hair running down its sides.

Blair stood and moved to the window that looked out into the harsh desert. He had long suspected Homeland Security was sitting on something like this, but had never known for sure. He put his hands behind his back and squeezed a pressure point on his left wrist with his right hand, seeking distraction from nervous excitement. He’d been here for a year, keeping test pilots in top shape mentally and physically. This whole base and everything that went on in it was as top secret as they came. Even with Top Secret clearance, he had to be careful where he went and what questions he asked.

There are aliens, then? Blair had dreamed of such wonders since he saw his first UFO in elementary school. A touch of nausea bubbled in his stomach. He hadn’t had breakfast yet and this news was too much to believe. Any minute now, the room would start spinning. Not trusting himself to remain vertical, he sat back down at his desk.

A deep booming chuckle filled the little office. I didn’t say that. Langstrom laid a finger against his broad, flat nose. Let’s just say we’ve been in contact with other such craft, and the outcome has always raised more questions than answers. This is the first time one of them has contacted us and made any such claim.

Blair rested his elbows on the desk and laced his fingers together, chastising himself for making assumptions. The one craft he saw on base a few months ago looked as otherworldly as any he’d seen in movies, but it had been experimental. Not alien.

Langstrom sweated and shifted in his seat. He also looked a little too pleased with himself. He wasn’t telling the whole truth.

What are we waiting for? Let’s go! He grabbed his medical bag. This was exactly what he’d hoped to encounter one day, but never dreamed it would become reality.

~~~~~~~~

The drive out to the landing site was bumpy, but surprisingly short. Blair rode the whole way in the back of an ambulance with Langstrom and two soldiers. No one said a word. The tension was as thick as the smell of sweat and gun oil.

The armed men got out first then gestured for Blair and Langstrom to follow. The desert stretched around them for miles in every direction. A ring of mountains shimmered in the heat rising from the sand. The sun bore down on everything, hammering surfaces as in a forge, only more intense as the day went on.

A ring of soldiers with their backs to the ambulance stood about fifty yards away. Carbon arc lamps glowed on fifteen-foot poles. Their light wasn’t necessary, but their presence meant everything had been here since before sunup. Blair could barely make out barricades and a few Humvees through the curtain of camouflage-covered flesh.

Any word? Langstrom asked a Marine sergeant standing nearby.

The heavily armed woman nodded crisply. He opened lines of communication. He’s ready to come out at our signal. She stood in front of a bank of electronic equipment shadowed by a canvas roof. Screens displayed something huge and circular shrouded in translucent white plastic sheeting.

Blair stepped over to where they were talking and pointed to the images. Have we decontaminated it? He didn’t know what it was exactly, but he didn’t want to let on. From his experience with biological weapons drills, he knew it was a good question to ask.

Langstrom nodded. The whole tent was set up at 0330. About five hours ago. We’ve hit the interior with a broad spectrum of light and a battery of tests. All CBRN protection protocols are in place. None of the sniffers detected anything.

"Are we