Syman: Book One

By Mr E.

Inspired by a real life UFO sighting in 1999 the story begins. Whilst enjoying a coffee and cigarette on his balcony at home, Jim Wilson witnesses a UFO dodge a satellite. As the years go by the event is forgotten about when Jim falls very ill and is told to move North to a warmer climate than Tasmania for his health. Once there his condition worsens, until one night whilst taking the family dog outside for a break Jim is whisked away to an odd, wet smelling room. Enticed to move through a newly formed corridor in the wall, Jim comes face to face with his very first alien, Rogand. After the awkward introductions are over, Rogand offers Jim an offer he can't refuse and so enters our colourful symbiotic saviours into Jim's life, Syman.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Jan 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524517915

Mr E.

John Andrew Egan was born 1961, in Deniliquin New South Wales, Australia. For 36 years he has held the position of a traditional Sign writer. However, with most labor based trades his fell to the inevitable advancement of technology. So, he was left with a decision, perish or evolve. John chose the later, and turned his talents towards writing Sci-Fi.

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Copyright © 2017 by Mr E.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5245-1792-2

                eBook           978-1-5245-1791-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 01/24/2017

Xlibris

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www.Xlibris.com.au

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Contents

Chapter 1 First Sighting

Chapter 2 First Contact

Chapter 3 Blended

Chapter 4 Second Flight

Chapter 5 Going Public

Chapter 6 REFIT Revolution

Chapter 7 Impostor

Chapter 8 Possible Threat

Chapter 9 Welcome Home

Chapter 10 To The Rescue

Chapter 11 A New Recruit

Chapter 12 Getting Involved

Chapter 13 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Chapter 14 Protecting The Masses

Chapter 15 Love Makes You Crazy

This one’s

for my soul mate Rhonda

CHAPTER 1

First Sighting

Where do I begin my unique story? Well now, I guess a good a place as any is at the very beginning, when I saw him or should I say his vessel for the very first time.

As I recollect it was sometime in the third week of July 1999, on a beautiful crisp and cool night, while standing on the balcony of my small and meagerly appointed home in Tasmania, which faced the banks of the beautiful Tamar River. The location offered generous panoramas of the Batman Bridge and surrounding river frontage. It was roughly around 9 o’clock in the evening and I recollect there was a moonless sky above me.

The night air was so clear and clean with zero pollution, as the westerly winds predominately blow from one side of the island to the other. They begin from as far away as the Indian Ocean, thousands of kilometers away, rounding Cape Town at the bottom of Africa. Another benefit of living in a rural area was having the advantage of no street lights interfering with the view from above, giving me 100 per cent visibility.

One of the many passions of mine has and always will be, staring at the stars on a crystal-clear night. Why even as a young boy I would drag out my sleeping bag and lie out on the back lawn while gazing skyward for hours at a time, mesmerized by the amazing vista above me. I would lay there and think of the possibilities of distant Worlds, trying to imagine what they would look like. Is there any type of plant life on those Worlds? And, who or what type of beings live on them? Also, on that odd occasion when I was lucky enough, I’d catch a glimpse of an asteroid’s last moments, watching it fall towards Earth in a white-hot death roll.

Why even being a new father hadn’t dampened my interest in star-gazing, generally most evenings that’s where you’ll find me, especially after a hard day’s work. I’d star gaze while having a coffee and a roll-your-own cigarette on my balcony, mainly so I don’t smoke inside the house for young Timothy’s benefit. Relaxing and unwinding watching for asteroids, orbiting satellites and space junk to drift by.

I gave my glasses a good clean on the corner of my flannelette shirt, so I could see more clearly. There was nothing worse than gazing through dirty spectacles at the fine details above. It never ceased to amaze me just how much crap was floating around up there, including parts of old multistage rockets and old satellites no longer in use.

Suddenly my eyes were drawn to a particularly bright object, a satellite moving rapidly from East to West. Wow! Isn’t that amazing! I thought. I could even see its anti-clockwise rotation. Once again I thought, how clear the air was here.

What I saw next defied everything you ever heard from governmental authorities, especially in regard to UFOs. ‘Officially they don’t exist’. However, I was following the path of the satellite when a vessel swerved out of its way. In doing so, the reflection from the sun hit what I thought was the underside of its hull, exposing all of its texture and details, especially its overall size. It was huge, bloody huge in fact.

Guessing by the size of the satellite it missed, it was roughly the size of a large family home, of course that’s only the one side I was able to see. God knows how tall it was. Although, the texture of the side facing me was pitted and rough like an orange skin. In some strange way it appeared to be almost organic. Only when the vessel changed its course did it come into view, which made me assume it has some type of stealth capability, because once it had dodged the oncoming satellite, it vanished from my sight.

So, there I was, alone on my balcony with 101 questions running through my mind. I started imagining all types of creatures which may inhabit this vessel, or perhaps it was a fully automated probe of some kind? But as I said before, it was a crisp, cool night and I was freezing my ass off out there, it was now time for me to get back inside next to the fire and warm up.

After rinsing my coffee mug in the kitchen sink, I sat down in my favorite lounge chair, right next to the blazing fire, the warmth coming from it was both calming and comfortable.

My wife Stella was staring at me rather strangely. What’s wrong Jim? Looks like you’ve just seen a ghost, she said, after turning around from viewing the TV.

Maybe I have, I replied, still deep in thought.

What did you see out there? she continued to ask.

You won’t believe me if I told you, I said, leaning forward to rest my elbows on my knees and cupped my hands together.

Ok, try me, she replied, scrutinizing me with greater interest.

Well, I was watching a satellite pass overhead, when suddenly a vessel or ship swerved abruptly out of its way, reflecting the sun underneath on its hull, making it clearly visible and Stella, it was big. Damn big!

She was wearing the glare of a non-believer on her face and by the changing expression on her face, I could clearly tell what she was thinking, something like, what the hell have you been smoking out there? I know Stella well, very well in fact and can tell if I kept on with this line of conversation she’d be searching in the phone book for the nearest available shrink and arrange an appointment.

I decided it was a good tact to change the subject. How’s Timothy? Is he finally asleep? I asked sheepishly.

Yes, he drifted off pretty quickly tonight. Speaking of which, I’m pretty tired as well. Goodnight Jim, I’m off to bed. Are you coming? asked Stella, getting out of her chair.

Yeah, I suppose so, it is kind of late, I said, glad the awkward moment had passed.

It wasn’t long before the events of that night were well and truly forgotten, as the daily grind of family and work overtook any remaining thoughts I may have had in regard to my sighting.

One year, two years and then three years went by somewhat quickly. Oh well! Just like the saying goes, Time waits for no one.

In January 2002, my health undertook a turn for the worse. My doctor put it down to overworking. I was a certified mechanic contracted to two of the largest car yards in Launceston, I also picked up some local work from around home, every now and then. This resulted in me usually spending six to seven days a week under the bonnet of a car.

An unknown illness, said the doctor as he began explaining, he said, I had simply worn myself out, allowing the unknown virus to takeover.

The doc was unsure what type of medical condition I was suffering from, but I started to experience widespread body pain with horrendous fatigue. Beginning with the doc’s expert advice, I was to cut back on my workload immediately. So naturally the first work to suffer was my weekend clientele, much to my customer’s disappointment. I was only charging them $15.00 an hour, mainly because it was cash-in-hand work. No point in giving the taxman all your hard earnings, is there? This had the desirable result in making life a little bit easier for a while, however, it only prolonged the end of my working career just one more year till March 2003.

At this time, I was left with just the one company to work for. Even this was becoming extremely hard to manage due to my symptoms increasing in severity. I struggled to maintain the three days of work they expected from me.

Totally frustrated and exhausted, I returned to the doctor again for some much-needed help. Much to my surprise and dismay, the doctor suggested I move to a warmer climate to help alleviate my symptoms.

Where? I asked, squirming in my seat and starting to dread his response.

The doctor stared me squarely in the eyes and said, North of the Tropic of Capricorn.

Are your serious? I replied, displaying a shocked appearance upon my face.

Very serious, said a completely calm Dr Phillips. If you base your search on somewhere between Mackay and Cairns, you’ll be in a far better climate to achieving a reasonable return to health.

What do you mean ‘reasonable’? What, no chance of a full recovery? I asked, quite shocked at the news.

You’ve run yourself into the ground Jim, I’d say you came very close to a complete physical breakdown. Try not to worry though. Once you’ve relocated, you’ll start to feel the benefits straight away, said Dr Phillips in the usual doctor-patient banter he uses with all his patients.

Once I get up there, how long before I can expect to see some kind of return to good health? I asked. I was definitely having trouble coming to terms with my new dilemma and hoping the doctor’s answer was a simple one.

Six months to a year, the doc responded as he wrote out another script for yet more pain-killers.

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather after that.

After thanking and shaking hands with him, I paid the fee for my visit at the front reception desk on my way out. Then I began to think, Now all I have to do is give Stella and Timothy the bad news somehow.

The next morning at the breakfast table, after a very disturbed night of sleep, tossing and turning, I began to think of how best to inform Stella and Timothy of what the doc had suggested. Finally, we were all seated and begun to eat our breakfast when it just happened, I’d decided to break the news. I know I was still half-asleep and disorientated from the lack of sleep and I remember my choice of words were a little bit off that morning. If I had another chance to do it all over again, I’m sure I would’ve put a great deal more effort and thought into it. I really didn’t know what I was thinking, but my exact statement didn’t go down to well.

We need to move to Cairns, the words just fell out of my mouth. Before I had a chance to correct myself and begin to explain my reasons why? Timothy began crying and Stella just sat there with a stunned expression upon her face. Realizing my error, I quickly changed the subject by glancing at my watch and saying. Damn I’m late for work, I haphazardly blurted out.

I quickly grabbed my work bag and made a hasty exit towards the back door, while wishing them both to have a good day. I must say, it wasn’t one of my most memorable exits as I recalled driving into Launceston.

Later that evening, I drove home and parked the car after returning home. I was dreading the frosty reception I’d receive from Stella. Grabbing my work bag off the passenger seat, I headed for the back door, taking a few slow, deep breaths, I gathered my courage and entered.

Hello Dad, how was work? asked Timothy, lifting his gaze up from the computer in our make shift office in the spare room.

Really well, thanks Tim, how was school today? I asked in return. He noticed me glancing around everywhere.

Good thanks Dad, Mom’s in the kitchen if you’re looking for her, he said, turning back to the computer screen to continue his homework.

Thanks Tim, I placed my work bag in the hall and made my way through to the kitchen.

Hello kiddo, I said, peering around the side of the doorway.

Oh! Hello Jim, dinner is almost ready, go and wash up, by the time you’re finished it’ll be on the table, she said, sounding warm and welcoming in a positive way.

Well, that went better than I thought it would, I thought, while washing my hands in the bathroom sink.

Over dinner, we talked at great length about where we might base our search for properties, Stella even suggested we all sit in front of the computer after we’ve eaten and start house hunting online. You know, to see what types of houses are available up North, she said, rather excitedly.

A few weeks later, we’d both decided to settle in a town west of Cairns called Mareeba. After checking the weather details online, we discovered Mareeba has an average annual temperature of 16 to 32 degrees Celsius and a relative humidity of 65 per cent.

Perfect, we both said. No sooner was our house put on the market, in hardly no time at all it was sold to a young couple from Brisbane wanting to live in a cooler climate.

Once we had organized the removal company, Stella and I settled on the final leaving date and held a large party to say farewell to all our family and friends. With the station wagon packed and filled to the brim, and our ferry tickets booked to take us from Devonport across Bass Strait to the Victorian City of Melbourne, aboard the Spirit of Tasmania, we set off on the long road trip ahead.

From Melbourne, we started the 2,992 kilometer journey North. As we were in no rush to get there, Stella and I decided to show Timothy some of the sights on the way up.

Twelve days later we arrived in Mareeba. Our first lodgings were at the local caravan park, where we stayed for a total of two weeks, until we found ‘Casa De Wilson’, an old Queenslander styled home built in 1943. She was the perfect fixer upper, a renovator’s delight.

Once the contract for sale was in the works, the owners gave us permission to move in straight away and pay a small weekly rental until the house title was finally transferred into our names. If my memory serves me correctly, it was the 26th November 2003.

We met with the Primary School Head Mistress the following week and enrolled Timothy in Year 5 at the nearby public school, only a short 15 minute walk away, much to Timothy’s disgust. You see, in Tasmania he enjoyed a 45 minutes bus ride to school, which was a lot of fun for all the kids.

Timothy was the most upset in regard to the move. As far as he was concerned, Tasmania was his home and the only home he wanted. Which incidentally, he constantly reminded us on the journey up at every available chance he had, making statements like, 105 Camms Road, Kayena was my home and I was very happy there until you decided to move us. Thanks Dad!

It required many more years for Timothy to forgive me for turning his whole world upside down. Stella reminded me on a regular basis to be patient with him. Even though I was in constant pain and struggling to cope with my energy robbing fatigue, somehow, I found the patience to wait for Timothy to come round.

In regard to my health, we were able to find an excellent local doctor, Dr Benjamin Good, that’s right, Dr B. Good. Oh well, as it turned out, he was good, bloody good! He was able to diagnose my chronic sleep apnea just by asking me a few simple questions. I mean, I knew I snored, as did everybody else who lived within a 50-meter radius.

Dr B. organized a sleep study in Cairns Private Hospital for me. After the nurse wired me up with all the sensors, I eventually fell asleep wearing the outrageous looking wiring harness strapped to my head. Next morning, the results spoke for themselves. In five hours of recorded sleep, I had 736 apnea events. The longest one was a whopping 183 seconds long. Wow! That’s over three minutes of not breathing, so imagine how shocked I was to find out my blood oxygen levels fell as low as 65 per cent whilst I was asleep. Dr B. said to me later during my follow up appointment, Your bloody lucky you didn’t die in your sleep from severe Hypoxemia.

Even better than the wonderfully warm climate, was the location of our house. Smack-bang in the main street, close to everything; hospital, medical center, shops and restaurants. It was Stella’s idea to be as close to town as possible so she could find work and involve herself within its small rural community.

As it turned out, Stella didn’t take too long to find work. We were enjoying coffee and cake one morning at the local Coffee Club in the center of town, when the charming girl who served us, struck up a conversation with Stella and in a roundabout way she ended up with a job by the time we had finished our morning tea.

My job was to concentrate on getting well again, while taking on my new role as ‘Mr Mom’ mainly for Timothy’s benefit. Both Stella and I are somewhat old fashioned in our ways and believe someone should always be home to greet him, when he returns from school each day, to instil some routine into his life, while he’s young.

After many blood tests and scans over a period of three years, Dr B. finally came to a diagnosis. You have Fibromyalgia, he said at the beginning of one of my many appointments.

Pardon me doc, but what the devil is this Fibro-what’s-it? I asked, with my anxiety levels now commencing to rise as he continued with his explanation.

Well Jim, don’t be too disappointed when I tell you none of the tests you’ve had points directly to the disease, it’s the lack of results that do, explained Dr B.

I don’t know what the hell you are trying to tell me doc, I said, with my voice rising in pitch. I found myself leaning forward to hang off his every word.

Ok Jim, at this moment in time, there are no diagnostic tests available to verify you have Fibromyalgia, said the doctor noticing my increased interest. The diagnosis is mostly made from my observations over a long period of time and by listening to the patient, together with the lack of results from various diagnostic tests, said Dr B, pulling up the information from the system onto his computer screen.

Hmm, sounds like a strange way to come to a diagnosis though, I said, feeling slightly deflated and strangely wishing I had a basic diagnosable disease.

It is, but this is how it’s been for all illnesses that have no specific blood tests or fail to show up under diagnostic scans, replied Dr B.

With my haphazard acceptance of his explanation, I drove back home in a mind numbing daze, unsure how to accept my newly diagnosed predicament.

I was doing my very best to cope with the day-to-day chores of running the family home, caring for Timothy and trying my best to be a loving husband to Stella. I must admit, being on the CPAP machine for over two years has been extremely beneficial in slowing the progression of my sleep apnea symptoms.

However, I still didn’t have enough stamina to hold down even a basic job. No matter how hard I tried, the pain was intolerable, the fatigue made me sleep for hours at a time and to add salt to the wounds, I have acquired a new symptom called ‘Fibro Fog’. Which gives me more grief than I want to confess to. It causes me the inability to concentrate or even remember the simplest of things.

There was a period in 2006, when I had to give up driving the car for 18 months because of the ‘Fibro Fog’. I just didn’t trust myself behind the steering wheel of a car, it felt like I was out of faze with reality. I would drive through a set of traffic lights and then wonder later, was it green or red. Still the oddest thing around this time was the strangest feeling of being watched. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t shake it. This unfortunately didn’t help much with my paranoia or anxiety levels one little bit.

In all this time since 1999, I had never given a moments thought to my first sighting, until Thursday 18th September 2008, I was out the front of my house, taking Christopher for a quick piss-n-look as I call it. Christopher is our eight year old Boxer dog.

We adopted him from our local animal sanctuary. Anyway, while he was entertaining himself, cocking his leg against some of Stella’s prize fuchsia’s, I started to notice a rapidly descending fog that night. Gazing up through the fog I spotted a plane’s running lights; one yellow at the front, a blue one to its left side and a green one on the right. It was heading straight towards me, this of course I was familiar with as the local airport is only 20 minutes South of us.

HOLY CRAP, I said aloud. Where’s the noise? No sound was coming from the plane at all. His engine must have failed, I thought. I watched the aircraft carefully to make sure his lessening altitude wasn’t going to bring him down on top of any houses in the immediate area. When, without slowing down, it headed east in a sharp 90 degree turn directly above me. No aeroplane we have could have matched its manoeuvrability. As quickly as it came into my view, it was then lost into the night fog.

Nevertheless, what kept springing into my mind, was how eerie the whole event unfolded. The fact there was no sound, I thought. It did seem strange how deadly quiet Mareeba was at this time, no traffic and no people walking the streets. It appeared as if the whole event was perfectly timed somehow. Usually at this time of night a steady flow of both cars and people pass our house.

I called Christopher to come back inside, he came running over to me wagging his stumpy tail, very satisfied having taken care of his business. Walking towards the back door I contemplated telling Stella of what I had just witnessed, but by the time I’d reached the back door, I decided maybe this one I should keep to myself.

Once again, the events of that evening became less important in regard to the hustle and bustle of our busy lives. As I said earlier, my damn memory is affected by my illness and not being able to concentrate on even the most simplest of tasks, made this event completely slip my mind altogether.

Another year drifted by without a single sighting. It was time again to do my evening duty with our dog. That duty of course is taking our beautiful new dog, a year and a half old Harlequin Great Dane and Arab Mastiff cross, called Jess, out for a quick piss-n-look. We had lost poor old Christopher to cancer a month earlier. Jess started her usual route around the front yard, while she was busy, I began looking up at the stars again.

Hmm, this has always been a good way for me to relax, helps me to put all my problems into perspective, I said to Jess, while thinking, it’s another beautiful night. Jess tried to catch a cane toad. Leave those bloody things alone, I told her. They’ll make you damn sick, you crazy dog, I thought. Gazing up again, I tried to see where the planet Mars was positioned in the night’s sky, but gave up in disgust. I don’t really know which planet is which or where the known constellations are. However, viewing them has and always will be, therapeutic to my soul.

Peering down at Jess, I realized she hadn’t quite finished, so I gazed up once more and thought, I wonder if that thing’s still up there after all these years. I started to work out its relevant position to where I was now standing. From my original sighting on my balcony in Tasmania all those years ago, I remembered I was facing South, South West, staring up at roughly an angle of 75 degrees.

So, I found South in relation to where the Sun always rises in Mareeba and turned my gaze upwards and slightly to the South, South West. I began to search around in that particular area of space and it wasn’t long before I found it again. There it is in stationary orbit, right where it had been nine years ago. I thought, what the bloody devil could it be doing up there all this time. Was there someone in it, or is it an automated probe of some kind. Strange how its color was slightly darker than the night sky. If it has some type of cloaking device, then it’s not working very well, I continued to think.

I can plainly see it, I said to Jess, who was standing next to me patiently waiting to be invited back inside, where she knows it’s lovely and warm.

I then began thinking why more people haven’t spotted it, or maybe someone else has, but their keeping it a secret too. I imagine they’re also in fear of being incarcerated as some type of nutcase. I know, I certainly haven’t been on TV confessing to any alien conspiracies lately. I guess we all keep some things close to our chests these days.

Come on Jess, we’ve been out here long enough, Stella’s going to think we’ve been abducted, I laughed as she turned her head in response to my voice.

CHAPTER 2

First Contact

It’s now November 2009, Stella has changed jobs, she is now working as a guard at a nearby prison called Lotus Glen. However, there was only one downside to this new job, she’s on a rotating roster system. So, every fifth week she’s required to do two night shifts in a row. The main benefit of this new job was the generous increase in her income, which we put to good use and purchased a second car. This now made it easier for me to get to my specialist appointments in Cairns, while Stella continued using the station wagon to travel to and from work.

Timothy is now 15 years old and is in Year 10 at High School, he towers over me at 6 foot 5 inches tall. Damn, this warm climate has been good to him. Can’t say the same for myself though, my health’s still quite poor. I unfortunately suffered a heart attack early in August, would you believe I was totally unaware I was suffering from one at the time, all it felt like was being out of breath and a little bit dizzy when it occurred.

After seeing the Heart Specialist in Cairns Private Hospital, Dr Ming, he informed me I now have an enlarged heart with a lowered output to 42 per cent. Apparently, I have what he classed as a ‘lazy heart’ in non-professional terms. Oh well, my new motto is, ‘what doesn’t kill me, can only make me stronger’. I’m still trying hard to be positive