Star 999 Down

By Ricky Adlam

LOGLINE: In the future, a damaged ALIEN STARSHIP crashes to earth but meets its match when American and Russian submarines clash, then join together to keep it from leaving earth. (Written from the Sci-fi action screenplay of the same name.)

 

SYNOPSIS: A glowing UFO passing by our Solar System gets damaged and shoots across the Galaxy.  The five mile wide starship lands on earth to fix damages.  Astronomers follow the glowing object and name it "STAR 999", thinking at first that it's a meteorite. A British Cabin Cruiser in the splash down area gets destroyed and the Aliens capture three humans, an Uncle and two boys. Immediately, three (3) American and three (3) Russian nuclear submarines battle to get to the crash down first, almost causing a third world war until leaders tell them to join forces. The evil spaceship Commander tries numerous dirty tricks to destroy the subs. In the mist of battle, a mad Admiral takes control of the submarine Nevada, loading its Nuclear weapons via a remote-control suite case. Fortunately, Pentagon officers stop his actions just in time. After six alien saucer planes are shot down by female lead F-15EX Fighter jets, a marine rescue team invades the spaceship and plants air duct explosives. Just as Star 999 sinks down, an alien mini-sub escapes, headed to Virginia Beach. There, it attempts to signal for help on top of a tall hotel building. Marines capture two aliens, one of which has four babies. Two die and two escape which are hunted down in the city. After an action filled chase they are eliminated. Lastly the submarine TEXAS II heads to London for some R & R. In the end, with the rescued boys hoisted onto his officers shoulders,  Captain Sam Houston emphatically states that he "never wants to see another alien spaceship ever again". -The End

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ricky Adlam
• Release date: Nov 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393605546

Ricky Adlam

Ricky Adlam has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering with a background in Electrical Technology. He has working experience as a News Anchorman, a Weatherman, a TV Comedy Writer, a Senior Aerospace Project Engineer, an Aerospace Systems Engineer, an Industrial Engineer, and a Senior Nuclear Project Engineer. He has also performed Big Band songs at numerous Mayfair Music Festivals. He played rhythm guitar as a member of the Wabash Country Band. Ricky likes to write music, screenplays, and comedy novels. He usually writes a screenplay first and then uses it to create his finished novel. Ricky’s comedy-oriented writing makes his stories fun, fast reading books, which are available as e-books and in hardcover. Adventures at Top Tractor Academy was his first creation. Following that was 12 Monkeys on a Bus, then Twitzy & Ditzy, then SOS Cruise-Lines, then House Shoes, then The Tall Man, then Return of Pitt the Pirate, then Pet Town, then STAR 999 Down, and then Coronavirus-6WKS 2D DAY. Each of his stories are unique creations on their own with no follow-up volumes. Ricky Adlam hopes that these popular unique books continue to be read by young and old adults. It should be mentioned, that as a youth, Ricky Adlam was always outside playing Baseball, Football, Basketball, Stickball, Handball and Hockey. He intends to write comedy action sports stories in the future to be placed in school and local libraries throughout the United States.

Book preview

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STAR 999 DOWN

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INDEX

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INTRODUCTION -  (Page 3)

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CHAPTER ONE - THE NEW COMMAND  (Page 4)

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CHAPTER TWO - DANGEROUS WATERS  (Page 19)

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CHAPTER THREE - NUCLEAR ENCOUNTER  (Page 30)

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CHAPTER FOUR  - ALIEN ENCOUNTER  (Page 37)

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CHAPTER FIVE – INVADING THE ENEMY  (Page 58)

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CHAPTER SIX  - EXECUTION PLAN B  (Page 74)

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CHAPTER SEVEN – ALIEN CAPTURE  (Page 86)

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CHAPTER EIGHT – THE HUNT CONTINUES  (Page 94)

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CHAPTER NINE – HELP FROM LITTLE BELL  (Page 92)

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CHAPTER TEN – R & R ORDERS  (Page 96)

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LAST PAGE -THE END  (Page 100)

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Character Reference Sheet (Page 101)

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Authors Page (page 102)

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Submarine and Jet Plane Pictures (Pages 103-112)

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Book Cover Sheet (Page 113)

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STAR 999 DOWN

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INTRODUCTION:

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We’re at the Naval Base in Groton, Connecticut in the future. All eyes are focused on the docks where an old Naval Submarine has just been decommissioned.  The top  officer, Captain Houston, is dressed in full uniform, whites. He looks out to sea while standing on the front end of the long metal lady which he has served command over for many years.  On the dock, a uniformed crew stands lined up at ease, waiting for their Captain to make his final departure with an inspection, a node and a full salute.  In the distance, the ‘Trumpeters Lullaby’ is heard over a speaker system. Captain Houston walks about the top deck, mock inspecting the ship, peering up and back for his last look at the old gal. He stops to recollect the decades of time spent on its many sea adventures.  Finally, he moves down the metal gangplank to greet his reliable, trusted men. Once his foot hits solid ground, the navy crew stands at full attention in two separated rows on each side of a long red rug. Houston gives every man a warm smile, says their name, and then extends a brief handshake followed by a full salute. This ending comes with an ever so slight nod of the head. Each crewman holds his salute until all ninety-five have been met and dismissed. The last six crewmen are women sailors who worked on the bridge, in the sick bay and sometimes in the kitchen galley. Each one appears to be  holding back tears. At the end of the line is a circle of grass with an American flag waving high above from a white flagpole. Not too many steps away, a white limousine sits parked with the back door open wide. Having completed all that is required, Captain Houston walks stiffly to the waiting limousine. He turns about, looking as though he has developed a stiff back, then salutes the talented crew that has served him devotedly for eight years, one last time. Lastly, he adds a salute to the flag and promptly enters the vehicle. The sparkling, shiny white immaculate vehicle pulls away from the military ensemble and local cameramen, then disappears down the highway.  The loyal seamen remain standing statue still, in a straight line, looking like motionless dressed bodies in a wax museum. The solemn trumpet music that has filled the air for the past thirty minutes, suddenly halts. All goes silent, making it seem as if time itself, has stopped. A tugboat arrives and a line is extended. It pulls the old submarine away, never to be used by sailors ever again.

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CHAPTER ONE: THE NEW COMMAND

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A dark-blue pin-striped suite, covers the frame of a chauffeur driver who slides a tinted dividing glass to the side. He stares back at the motionless Captain Houston. He finally utters a few thoughts, Not a bad night. Things went well this morning. Nice ceremony, Sir. Houston breaks his frozen stare and replies,  Samuel, weren't you my driver when I arrived here years ago? I’m not mistaken, am I? Captain Houston removes his Naval Officers hat and places it on his lap.

Samuel, a dark skinned, nicely manicured, well respected Jamaican chauffeur, turns about in his seat, then stares through the rear-view mirror at the Captains face. He smacks his lips, then replies, That be right, Captain. I drive Sub Captains to their new nuclear toys, every so often. Man, it’s my only job. I like it you see. It pays me so fantastically, Captain Houston. Glad your vessel never sunk. Now give me a nice tip. Ha! Ha! We have the same first name. Ha! Ha! Ha-aa-aah.

Captain Houston breaks into a smile. He leans over and taps Sam on the shoulder. Samuel, how about taking me on a detour to see the old sailing ships, then you can drive me directly to the Texas II?  I need a short while to adjust my thinking. The officers waiting for me won’t be worried if we’re a little late. Oh. One other thing. My first name is Sam not Samuel. Houston smiles for a moment, then his stone facial expression returns as he stares out the tinted window. Samuel nods back at Captain Houston. Quickly, he reaches into the glove compartment and tosses back a brochure from Mystic Seaport, through the open glass partition. It lands right on Houston’s lap. The Captain gives Sam a thumbs up, then glances down at the brochure. Sam slides the rear glass window back in place. He casually turns on the radio, sets it down low and heads the Limo up the on-ramp leading to US Highway 95. Today traffic is light. Limo driving goes smoothly all the way to the Seaport Museum.

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INSIDE AN ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY

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It’s early morning at the Denver, Colorado - Astronomy Observatory Unit I, where two young astronomers dressed in light-blue lab coats are sitting in front of three large, computer monitor screens.  Two screens depict the universe as it appears from earth.  The central screen contains a high definition picture of the earth as seen from a far distant satellite revolving about the earth. Red circles pop around stars, here and there as a computer system identifies each one in the dark night sky. Another white cursor bounces from star to star on the screen, pausing occasionally to print out and announce known star coordinates between movements. 

On screen we see and hear, STAR IDENTIFIED, sequence number 998 at 106.000989 Degrees. Young Doctor Peter Rain, a red haired genius from an observatory on Long Island, stuffs the last of a candy bar into his mouth, crumples the wrapper into a ball and tosses it thirty feet across the room into a trashcan sitting by the elevator entrance door. Nothing new today, as usual. Can't wait for dinner, Cats. I’m a hungry old sea scout today.

The other young man, retired Lieutenant Dave Cats with extensive knowledge of star clusters and weightlifting training, casually looks up from his internet shopping on an expensive computer laptop.  He peers over toward the trash can. Nice shot, Doc.  Odd thing just happened. Two stars just disappeared from the tracking screen. Why did this happen? They are either gone or something very big blocked them. We’ll soon see, kid. Peter walks over to Dave’s screen and looks it over. He bounces up and down in his red sneakers, which blink off and on as he does this nervous, relief exercise. 

Peter stares at the screen, hypnotized. Two stars, hum. Wait a while, the stars should reappear. You'll see. Peter rubs his itchy nose.

Dave looks at the middle screen, which has change from a shot of earth to a view of outer space. He stops his bopping activity and moves closer to the screen. Suddenly, large printed words appear followed by a loud, sharp animated announcement, INCOMING STAR FOUND. Silence follows. TRACKING COORDINATES.

Dave asks Peter, Incoming star found? Tracking Coordinates? Just what is happening out there? Next, continuous beeping begins. Numbers spit out along the bottom of all three screens. Both technicians observe the central monitor more closely. They both place closed hands on their cheeks, shocked at what is occurring on all three screens. Peter smacks a red button, I’m connecting all ninety other locations worldwide. They got to see this for themselves. Maybe we’ll get an e-mail from someone.

Dave adds in, This is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, in or out of the service.

Peter stands back and shouts, Are your sure it’s not an error? Looks like it could be a shadow echo. Just one star up there bouncing light off another star beam. Peter rubs his nose again. His nose is turning red.

Dave taps on a few monitor keys and shakes his head left, then right. He looks up at Peter and shrugs his shoulders. An ominous feeling crosses though his confused brain. Peter, we're getting tracking data feedback from sixty other dishes. Crazy man! I’m printing a data sheet right now. He hits the keyboard and the printer starts jetting out page after page of data.  Each sheet contains line after line of scientific numbered jargon. The desk phone rings twice. Both men flinch and jump upward. No one goes for the phone. Peter’s cell phone hums over and over. Dave’s cell phone plays the Star Wars theme. Peter sits and finally hits his cell phone intercom button. Science reporter, Jack Kidd’s face appears in a small box on the top right corner of the cell phone screen.  His mouth moves out of step sequence with his mouthed words.

Hello.  Universal tracking lab? It’s me guys. Jack shouts this with great excitement.

Peter replies, Go ahead, Kidd. What you got for us? You’re on speaker phone.

He rubs his nose once more and then rubs his eyes which are watering.

Jack pauses to catch his breath. I just got a call from a young, outdoor scientist, a Doctor Dennis Oliver. I’ve known him from years. He’s at the observatory in Hawaii. Dennis spotted an incoming meteorite...

Dave sits back down. When was it spotted Jack? About when?

Kidd the reporter replies, I’d say a good ten minutes ago. He called me immediately. Listen to what he said to me. ‘Something big is passing Pluto. It’s headed here.’ He calculates a splash down in the mid-Atlantic. Good thing it’s not headed towards any big city. How about that? And - - -

Peter talks over him,  Big-Boy identified it already. The object has clearly changed its course. -—I can’t believe that Oliver spotted it first, lucky bastard. Dave hits a key and a dotted pop up line appears. Well we named it first. Dave keyboards the name Doctor Dennis Oliver above the bright star on the central screen. Peter looks at the screen and flashes an OK hand sign to Dave. Both stare-hard at their monitor screens.

Dave types out. What identifier name has been chosen? He waits and reads the data computers answer out loud.  Listen. Its name has been listed as Star 999. Our dish was pointed at Pegasus and it popped into view. Damn strangest thing, Kidd. I hope you heard Oliver clearly.

Peter adds some words loudly, so Jack Kidd can hear everything though the cell phone. Our Bodes Law program will identify the size of the object as it approaches the atmosphere. It’s still zero, no. Six thousand Meters wide. -—That can’t be right?  Peter rubs his nose that is getting sore and redder now.

Jack shouts, When he first saw it guys, Dennis knew it wasn’t part of the Aurora Borealis, baby.  It shines way too bright. He said that it is reflective. I don’t what that means, do you?

Both Technicians shut up and hover over the center screen.  Peter now whispers to Dave, Hey! Why isn’t NASA on the phone with us yet? It’s off screen now. Better refocus on it again. Nothing appears. Peter hits the side of the set twice with his right hand. Dave stops Peter’s third swing with his left hand. Dave blows a large bubble gum ball until it pops. He stands back. It has directions. Impossible. Peter smiles up at him and begins to bite nervously on his fingernails. He rubs his eyes next.

Dave moves from the right monitor to the left. He rolls his desk chair left. It just sideswiped Pluto looking like a meteorite, but then changed its course, heading straight for earth. It’s headed towards the Atlantic again. Such a big rock. Let’s stay calm now.

Dave pounds his desk several times in excitement.

Peter points at the screen, Something that size should have gone into orbit.  Right? He looks for hand cleaner. He pumps some out and rubs it over his nose.

Suddenly, Dave sits back in his chair and changes the subject. Who named Pluto, Pete? Do you remember?

Peter replies, I think it was a guy named Clyde Tombaugh. Why?

Dave taps the table with a pen, Star 999 passed Pluto several moments ago. It's still headed here and could hit so hard that it wipes out all living things in less than a week.

Peter gives Dave a hard, silent stare. Dave rises one eyebrow. Over his cell phone, Jack Kidd shouts in a panic, Holly crap. I hope that don’t happen!

Dave continues, The angle of inclination has changed two degrees.  Relative speed appears to be 185,000 meters per second, leaning close to Einstein’s186,000 speed of light.  Odd that it changes direction and speed so fast.

Jack offers a hopeful dumb answer, Guy’s.  Maybe it’s a reflection off one of our satellites?  Like that Voyager Twelve thing we thought was a new Pluto moon.

Dave corrects Jacks thought, commenting, No Jack, this thing is real. Real jack-oh. Don’t mention Pluto again or I’ll switch you to the Disney channel. It’s headed here.

Peter sits in his chair and rolls it up to the right monitor, then types numbers for a second. 

Dave rolls in his office chair over right to view the printer’s data. A new dotted line appears headed to earth on the central screen. Dave announces, Oh brother. The NASA SPACELINK has just kicked in. They spotted it now. Shit! I’m still recording data. Done fellas. Sending it out everywhere.

Peter looks over at Dave. He frowns, then calmly states, I’m sending alerts to the White House and the Pentagon. This one is there problem now. I’m just an observer.

Dave lifts his cell phone, looks at it, then places his phone down. It squeals. He hangs up. Jacks face is still on the monitor, then it fades away. Dave smiles, then pushes a button to turn off his cell phone completely. Peter states, You hung up on Jack. He’s out, on an outside line to the world. I hope he keeps his mouth shut.

Dave points at the three giant screens, one by one. This is top security now. It is now the property of the Missile Defense program. I’m getting one more video and data print out before they take over our system. They can do this to us. Dave flops into his chair. He slides down to the printer. I’m getting hungry. I could peel a ripe banana right now. He scoots back to Peter’s side holding twenty sheets of paper. Here’s the scoop, buddy. Star 999 has somehow slowed up, which defies all known laws of science. It’s headed down into the Atlantic Ocean. We were right about that one. It’s on a Spiral of Archimedes decent for the middle of the damn Atlantic, just the way our astronauts do it. Hmm. That's very curious, Pete. It could cause a tsunami wave to head towards the east coast of the United States. That means that it’s a Coast Guard problem too."

Peter thinks out loud for a moment. "This is big news now. What about Doctor Oliver, over in Hawaii? Won’t he leak it out all