Traveller - L.W. Samuelson (free e books to read online TXT) 📗

object in the sky spotting it several times as it passed over the multicolored terrain.
A park ranger collecting trash in black plastic garbage bags also spotted the ship as it moved across the silver-gray spires. Parts of it appeared and disappeared. He got on his short wave radio and alerted the other ranger working in the visitor center.
When Ranger Goodwin went outside to investigate, there was a score or more of hikers and campers in the parking lot looking out with their hands shading their eyes. One of them pointed at the horizon. “There it is,” he said.
The ranger’s eyes followed the finger. On the horizon the pod came into full view for a second then disappeared. He saw parts of it several times as Traveller investigated the rock formations. Ranger Goodwin went back inside and called the Cassia County Sheriff’s Department.

Traveller sat the ship down on a grassy knoll for a poddy break. He didn’t know that people had been watching the intermittent appearance of the pod. The watchers at the visitor center gasped when four people emerged from a black square that suddenly opened on the green grass.
The figures seemed to walk around something on the green before they disappeared again. One of them reappeared with his hands in front of his crotch while shaking one leg.
A bearded man who was watching through binoculars informed the crowd, “They must be going poddy because one of ‘ems zipping his pants up. That must be some kind of camouflage plane or something, ‘cause those guys are as human as I am.”
“Let’s go see,” another man said. He and his campanions jumped in their Ford pickup and took off. Several other vehicles followed.

“If you shake it more than once, you’re playing with it,” Jesse joked as the foursome relieved themselves standing together shoulder to shoulder like gunslingers. “Poddy on dudes, poddy on!”
He was the first to notice the trail of dust roiling up from the road as several vehicles wound around the park to see the mysterious plane. “Better cut the flow we’ve got company coming,” Jesse informed his companions.
“How close? I really gotta go,” Willy complained.
“I’d say you have about ten minutes, but we’d better leave before they spot the ship.”
“Man, I be flowin’ like the Snake River. Why don’t y’all go down and put up a road block,” Willy suggested.
“You really need to hurry,” Tim said.
“Come on Willy!” Traveller yelled as he got back in the ship. He jumped in the seat, fired the thrusters. Tim and Jesse climbed in as the spacecraft elevated. He moved the ship across the grass so Willy would hurry.
“Hey wait up! Don’t be stranding a black man in white man country. They all be lynching me,” he said running and zipping his pants at the same time.
Tim and Jesse caught him by the arms and hauled him in. Traveller shut the door. He pushed the the throttle hard forward causing the ship to shoot ahead as it elevated.
“Just like the A-team,” Willy said as he stood and finished zipping up. “I wish we had some watermelons we could drop on ‘em. That’d teach ’em to be so nosy.”
“Did you wash your hands?” Jesse asked.
“Stupid Jesse! Whadya think? I barely got back in the plane.”
The hikers in the Ford pickup barreled around a rock spire just in time to see a black man being pulled into a black rectangle. Several parts of the ship became visible as it elevated. Once it ascended above the landscape, the ship blended into the blue.Chapter 37 - A Severed Tie

Traveller flew northwest toward Pomerelle. A helicopter passed below him headed toward the City of Rocks. They also spotted an airplane circling the area.
“You don’t think they’re looking for us do you?” Jesse asked.
“I’m sure. Probly gonna arrest us for hangin’ our wieners out. Whose idea was it to take a poddy break anyway?” Willy asked. “Traveller’s got a little bathroom we could have used.”
“Yeah but we all had to go at once and I just love a poddy, dude,” Jesse said. “We were poddying like it was 1969!”
“Stupid Jesse,” Tim said with a smile.
“Right on. Poddy on,” Jesse replied.
Traveller waited until the sky cleared before heading to the camping spot where he had originally landed just west of the ski runs. Dusk was slowly dimming the light putting a reddish-orange filter on the western horizon. He was unaware that the ranger in the lookout tower on top of Mount Harrison had spotted the ship several times in his binoculars.
Traveller slowed the ship down as he descended. He flew through the opening in the trees setting down near the fire pit. With dusk in charge of the sky, the men got out and stretched.
“Let’s get a fire going,” said Jesse.
“Not tonight. I don’t want anybody to know we’re here,” said Traveller. “Tomorrow we’ll fly back to camp then we’ll hide the spaceship somewhere.”
“Yeah, I think that plane and helicopter were looking for us,” Tim said.
Everyone got back in the ship. They ate synthowafers, apples, and jerky. When they finished, Jesse said, “Let’s play poker.”
He removed a deck of cards from his backpack and set them in the middle of the floor along with the bottle of Jack Daniels. “I thought I took that away, fool,” Willy said.
“I took it back. It’s mine. Lowest hand drinks a capful,” Jesse replied.
“Count me out,” said Willy.
“There’s just a little over half a bottle. All you have to do is win and let the losers do all the drinkin’,” Jesse coaxed.
“I’m in,” said Tim.
“Me too,” said Traveller.
“You gonna do my drinkin’ for me?” Willy asked looking at Jesse.
“Sure, what’re friends for,” he answered.
“Deal.”
They played for two hours before the whiskey was gone. Traveller had never played poker but picked the game up quickly. The cards never fell his way. There was no beginner’s luck for the alien. After several losing hands, Traveller was drunk.
Jesse and Willy lost about half of the rest of the games with Tim rarely losing. Good to his word, Jesse drank for Willy and himself. He didn’t mind though, he liked whiskey.
With the Jack Daniels gone, Jesse pulled a joint from his shirt pocket. He lit it and passed it to Tim who took a toke and passed it to Traveller who took a toke and passed it back to Jesse. “May the circle be unbroken,” Jesse said as he brought the reefer to his lips.
By the time the joint was gone, Traveller’s head was spinning. “Wow man, I’m loaded,” he said imitating Cheech and Chong. “Sister Mary Elephant’s going to stomp on my head man.”
Jesse started giggling. Traveller continued, “No Jesse, I mean like really man. I feel like I’m back in space man.” Jesse kept giggling. “Like I can see the stars twinkling in your eyes. The universe is like shrinking, man. I can like feel it, man. We’re going down a black hole, man.”
“Oh lord, we’re stuck in a spaceship with a couple of waistos,” Willy complained rolling his eyes. Jesse giggled some more.
“Look at the bright side of things,” said Tim. “Jesse hasn’t eaten any bean dip.” Jesse kept giggling.
“Yeah there’s that,” Willy said amid the laughter. “We don’t have to worry about being gassed to death.” Now Jesse broke into gut busting chortles. Tears rolled down his eyes. Traveller laughed as well, but not quite as hard.
When the silliness left their systems, Traveller sang “Ship of Fools” by the Doors. “The human race is dying out. No one left to jump and shout . . .”
His friends grew quiet as Traveller sang Jim Morrison, and then Bob Dylan, followed by Hank Williams. His melancholy voice instilled his friends with a sense of sadness.
Traveller finished with Steppenwolf’s “The Pusher” before pulling a sheet of padding and the tarps from the cargo hold. Jesse helped him spread them out on the deck for a place to sleep. All of them went to bed that night thinking about the world around them.

Willy shook Traveller awake late the next morning. “Listen,” he said.
Traveller could hear a whirring engine driving propellers above them. “What is it?”
“A helicopter. Sounds like it’s right over us. God, I hope it doesn’t land on us.”
“Everyone out of bed. Get your stuff put back in the cargo hold!” Traveller yelled. Moving with alacrity, even though his head pounded from the whiskey, Traveller jumped in the pilot’s seat and started the engines. He turned the camouflage unit off and the whirring sound moved away.
Jesse slid into the co-pilot’s seat. “What going on?” he asked.
“We’ve been spotted,” he answered engaging the thrusters. As the ship elevated, the whirring noise got louder. Once the spaceship cleared the trees, Traveller reengaged the camouflage unit. He whirled around and spotted the helicopter only twenty yards away coming straight at them.
“Hang on!” Traveller yelled. He pushed the red power burst control. The ship shot underneath the helicopter buffeting it sideways. Once he cleared the tail of the copter, Traveller pulled the wheel back causing the ship to go upside down while it elevated and flipped backward.
Traveller watched the chopper turn around as he flew over it upside down. The spaceship had moved too fast for the deck to adjust. Tim and Willy were thrown into the walls before finding themselves on the ceiling which was now the floor.
When Traveller rolled the ship right side up again, Willy and Tim fell to the deck sliding down it until it adjusted to flat. They slammed into the door side wall.
“Good Lord Bro’,” Willy said, “you trying to kill us?” He was rubbing his head where it had bumped against the wall. Tim was unscathed by the whole experience.
“Here Willy, take my place,” Jesse said unbuckling his safety harness.
“I take back every rotten thing I ever thought about you Jesse,” Willy said trading him places.
“Look down below,” Traveller said watching a pickup and car barreling up the road with revolving red and blue lights. Behind them a forest green jeep was followed by two trucks of the same color. The three vehicles had a white star on the driver’s side door. The truck beds were covered with ribbed canvas.
“Looks like they called out the National Guard,” Tim said.
“There’s another airplane, too,” said Willy pointing to a blue-striped Cessna heading their direction.
Traveller slowed the spacecraft to a halt then engaged the lifters to gain altitude. When the craft was well above the plane’s elevation, he hovered and watched. Two more planes appeared and circled the area.
“It’s time to head back to . . .,” Traveller was saying when a high whining scream drowned him out.
“We’re going to explode!” Willy yelled as the thundering scream buffeted the ship. It got louder and louder until the roar became unbearable. All four men put their hands over their ears and waited for their deaths in a fiery explosion. The spacecraft was pushed downward at the same time as the noise became impossibly loud.
The four men got a quick glimpse of the exhaust pipes of an F-15 as it roared over them with a companion jet by its side.
“Get us out of here before we’re shot down,” Jesse said with fear etched on his face. “Those babies are carrying missiles. Descend to just above the trees. Hopefully this thing will turn green and they won’t be able to spot us.”
“What about radar? We’ll show up on their radar systems,” Tim said. “Those are F-15As equipped with Doppler radar systems. They can distinguish low-flying targets from