MegaBoys from Outer Space
Chapter 6: Encounter; Corys' Story

Prologue:

When the small craft, holding the band of Navy Seals reached their destination, they knew right from the start that something was amiss. In the morning hours and from five miles out, Island M51 could be seen and located by the plumes of white smoke that poured from the interior. No radio signals could be picked up at all, and even though the frequencies were well known, only static could be heard. There was no sign that they were being monitored, so the Seals continued onward with their exploration of the hostile island. When the team passed the one mile sonar net, that surrounded the island, they expected resistance. Their craft plied the waters silently. That there was no actions in the clear skys, made the first mates nervously scratch their heads, the absence of enemy surveillance was unnerving. Was this a trap? The communication operative, held the earphones close and listened for any transmissions. He shook his head in the negative to the group leader. The smoke continued to billow; it looked almost like there was volcanic activity. Something underground was smoldering. There were indications of significant amounts of radiation. The craft approached the Island from the South, and circled, No sign of resistance, on an island that should have been heavily patrolled. There was no sign of any life at all until off to the distance, the waters became turbulent, a giant shape, slowly arose from the depths. The Control leader glanced a second time with his binocular, shook his head, and reported back to base. They would send up Drones to get a closer look.

In the War room back at the Pentagon, General Holland received the information directly. Soon images would be transmitted. Sitting in the semi darkened room was the entire military staff, as well as the President who chose to take a front seat. The signal that hearkened the UFO’s arrival was silent, but the report from the Seals was extraordinary. General Holland addressed the room.

“Island M51 has maintained radio silence, Our men noted no activity, hostile or otherwise from the location. We last intercepted a distress call, from the enemy at 0800 hours.” Those who were aware of the Islands operations sat in stunned silence.

“The Cocaine plantation is completely destroyed. As strange as it may be, there is no one guarding the shop. Nor is there any military presence visible from the top of the plateau. The eighteen big guns are accounted for, all destroyed. There is no broadcast from the Terrorist encampment, nor from any of the Weapons testing facilities that we know are housed on the base. We should be getting visuals soon. Gentlemen, It may be too early to celebrate, but it looks like something completely compromised our enemies most guarded instillation. Although we would like to take credit for it, whatever brought down the islands defenses, was not of our own doing.”

“The Israelies? General” Questioned one of the officers. General Holland shook his head,

“Not this time, they claim no intelligence of the situation." These are the facts, as we know them he surmised; At three AM something landed in close proximity to M51, We first received radio contact from the Plantation at about seven in the morning. Calls of distress directed to locations in South America. A half hour later, radio silence. The Island housed at least a thousand terrorists in training, heavily armed. One hour later the “Impenetrable” base was totally obliterated. What caused it’s destruction? We haven’t a clue. None of our allies were engaged in anything but surveillance. The reports indicate that there is no one left alive on that rock. What incredible force could even penetrate such a heavily guarded facility?”

As the General spoke, an image flashed on the screen. At first there was slight titter of laughter, as the image was observed, the laughter in the room thundered.

On the screen, clearly shown, was a six or seven year old, naked boy, sitting quietly on the beach. Its feet washed by the waves of the rolling surf. The General glanced at the screen abashed. It was a joke. Some clothing optional tourist beach in the middle of the south pacific was jamming our signal, and here was some kid relaxing and playing in the sand.

“General, did this little boy destroy our enemy fortress?” Came a wisecrack from the back. More laughter. The General scrutinized the live image coming in, thinking that there must have been some mistake. A Transmission glitch? Was this the image sent back from our spy drones? Using his remote control hookup with the Seals, The Generals Drone zoomed in on the subject. It was our drones feed. The room went silent. Two of the tiny toys the boy was playing with caught the Generals attention; He did his best to see what they were. The image was now frozen on the screen. The boy was playing with toy tanks. They were tiny in his fingers.

“Oh my Lord,” Said the General, unguarded, aloud,

“They are not Toys!” Some in the room actually jumped out of their seats, commotion ensued.

“Gentlemen, Meet our space invader!” Called a loud voice. All eyes turned to Dr Armstrong, who was attending as science adviser to the military.

“We are close enough in our figures to determine that a craft approximately a thousand feet tall, landed in the vicinity of M51, in water that just so happened to be twelve hundred feet deep. The ship has been concealed because it is underwater, but the rider of the ship, this enormous creature, which resembles a six year old male child, must have been the passenger, Our measurements of the size of the craft, and now the passenger, indicates that there could only be one such passenger aboard. Have we determined the size of this boy?” Calculations were quickly made. The boy on the beach was six hundred feet tall. He is playing now, but I would not call him harmless.” Armstrong addressed the General as he observed,

“We do believe that this was the force that destroyed our enemies base.”

“Shouldn’t we be trying to contact this creature?” It was the President making the inquiry. It was clear that he was thinking, an enemy of our enemy could be our best friend.

“Mr President, we don’t know what forces we are dealing with here, obviously the creature is capable of incredible destruction. I have ordered our men to observe the Alien, but not to engage it. We still have men seeking out the other two UFO’s that fell that night. They are still as yet, unheard from, and now you tell us that they might have Giants as pilots?”

The room fell into a silence, as the boy, on live feed, shook a tiny figure out from one of the tanks. The figure tumbled into the boys palm, showing signs of movement, It rolled over in the giants hand, and raised it’s arms, they could not hear it scream, but observed in cold silence, as the boy crushed the tiny man in its palm, and the blood spattered on it’s fingers.

“Kill the video” The General ordered.

“This is Top Secret information, no leaks to anyone” He said brusquely.

Cory’s Story;

Cory took the landing hard. His ship had only forty percent landing capacity. He just had to trust the back up guidance to bring him in, as safely as possible. It was going to be a rough water landing, but this would absorb much of the shock. To protect his body from concussion, Cory set his control to auto reentry blackout mode. He would hopefully awake after the landing. Checking the instrumentation, Cory made sure he was buckled in snug, and held his breath as the touchdown indicator counted down the remaining flight time.

The Monopod hit the waters at a steeper angle then it might have, had all the controls been working. Had he not been secured, the concussion would have thrown him into the instrument panel. Cory as planned, blacked out before impact. His craft skimmed the water and tumbled about before finally adjusting its angle of entry. The water acted like breaks and the craft threw a huge plume of water as it finally touched down. It came to rest in shallow waters, just a few miles south east of a small island resort. The gyros kicked in but the mechanism had been damaged on touchdown, and now the Monopod was resting secure but unsteady in the water. The ship shifted to an awkward position when the gyro’s died.

Cory startled awake, He was not sure how long he had been out. The craft was still now, and was tilted on its side, at an odd angle. It was still dark outside, The craft was resting beneath the surface on a shelf of rock and coral, The top of the Monopod was just under two hundred feet below the water. As he roused himself, he brought up a status report on the information panel; Life function controls were all working, but indicated an imminent break down. The food and water synthesizer unit was damaged; The Waterskin controls were still workable. The communication module showed no activity. Navigation of his Monopod was out of the question.

Cory flicked a few switches on his control board, and tried to get a reading on Yelid and Punims location markers. He was put on hold as it entered the search mode. His D units were running low, and power was being reserved. He amplified the receiver signal, and could make out faint transmissions of local origin but no signs from his friend nor of his brother. Keying in on a fairly strong wavelength He switched on the translator unit allowing it to lock in on a signal, and run it’s analyses, When he got a solid reading he would come back to his radio, but for the moment he had to take care of other important business.

He was alive, and except for a bump or two, was unharmed by the rough landing. After trying in vain for five minutes, he frowned and turned away from the communication center, disappointed that he was not able to pick up a signal of his friends whereabouts. Other then that, he noted that the outside conditions were agreeable and sustainable for life. Looking out his view port, he could see light filtered down from above the surface, a day cycle was beginning. The Atmosphere of this planet was friendly, as was the temperature and surface radiation. If he could put his fears behind him, he would admit it was wonderfully exciting, landing here on this unidentified world.

The translator indicator turned green, There were transmission coming from the planet, a whole radio spectrum, this indicated intelligent life forms. Making an entry in his log, Cory wondered what they would look like. His Galactic encyclopedia narrowed down the atmospheric conditions, and listed all known life forms discovered under the current parameters. There were some very strange looking creatures. As Cory narrowed the field to include only intelligent life forms, he noted that most, for some reason resembled Those of Beden. Bipedal and upright.

A quick analysis of the planets surface data, including geographical, navigational, magnetic orientation, and rate of rotation, fed back the facts that Cory already knew. This was a planet eighteen hundred times smaller than his home world. It was far tinier then even his home planets moons. He did not know how this would affect the planets life forms. Would they have evolved technology? Punim reported something about seeing lights on the planets dark side before they touched down.

Cory was sore, and hungry, but there was no food to be had in the craft, and until he had the chance to repair the nutrition synthesizer, he might have to look to the planet for food and water. Outside indicators made it clear that his exogear would not be needed. His utility strap should have everything he would need to sustain him, and allow him to explore and run tests of his surroundings.

Before his first official excursion, Cory reviewed his protocol manual about dealing with alien life forms, not even expecting to replace any. He thought himself even less likely to replace intelligent aliens on this small planet. Cory recalled looking out his portal for any signs of civilization, on landing, before he passed out, He saw no signs. He was looking for cities like the ones on his home world. Or any structures for that matter, Even though he passed low through the atmosphere, he saw nothing at all.

The tropical Island of Santa Iglesia was the closest landfall. The island itself was a small dot in the South China Seas, It was a sparsely populated tourist location accessible only by cruse ships or by the small planes that landed on the islands only airport. The beautiful beaches and coves provided vacationers with recreational facilities. Some of the finer tropical hotels dotted the palm studded beach. The Island sustained a native population of two thousand. Many worked for the hotels. Others farmed the Sugar Cain and pineapple plantations. The rest went out fishing to sustain the population with their daily catch. The structures were at their tallest, five to ten story affairs. Most tourists preferred the beach style bungalows that extended up to the fine sandy beaches. The Island hosted a Norad signal outpost, and a meteorological observation tower on the highest part of the island which overlooked the town below, Whatever height the Island might have had in it’s volcanic past, had long since weathered away and now was just a low rise over the beach area. A local police department, Fire department and municipal services tended the needs of the population they were situated in town. The Island thrived because of it’s prosperous year round tourist trade. The crystal waters and colorful coral beds made for some of the finest diving In the world.

It was barely light outside now, and Cory adjusted his utility strap. He placed the ear bud in his left ear, accessing the radio waves and the translator unit. There was no telling what he would replace on the planets surface. Satisfied that everything on board was secure, Cory positioned himself, set the Waterskin controls, and exited his monopod in a flurry of bubbles. The skin held and the ship resealed itself.

The water temperature was warm and felt comfortable, the bubbles swirled around him as he rose to the surface. As with Punim, his craft had landed in a shallow area. As Cory’s head broke the waters surface, he could make out the nearest feature, an island before him a short distance away. The dawn light revealed a pleasant green blanket in a deep turquoise blue sea. The planets Sun was warming the temperature as it ascended. The air was humid and smelled sweet, of the Islands greenery. Cory scanned the horizon and could not make out any activity. Although it was approaching six thirty in the morning, most of the island was still asleep.

Cory could not have been aware of all the morning activities going on as the day began; He was not aware of the cooks in the hotels who were preparing for the breakfast shift in a bustle of activity. Nor could he have been aware that from atop the weather station, he was being observed.

The Sun still low on the horizon, but rising pushed back the darkness. The sky was streaked with a dark and light blue, a picture postcard morning.

It struck Cory, that he might have been looking at any beach on Beden, but there was something different that he could not quite discern yet. A few strokes of his arms put him in waters shallow enough to stand, The ground underwater was now hard and solid beneath his feet. The small island before him was a short walk away. Cory remained mostly submerged. The water was salty, and not appropriate for drinking. He spat out a mouthful. It was the Islands size that caught Cory off guard. It gave him the impression of being smaller somehow then even the smallest Islands of Beden. Of course, he thought to himself, the planet is so much smaller than home. He waded closer; His chest and head now steady above the surface. He was now able to look for any of the Planets life forms. His first visual scan of the island showed nothing, which was odd, because he was still picking up signals, seemingly coming from the Island. He adjusted his ear bud.

One could say he was startled by the revelation that he was not alone. He quickly ducked back below the waters surface. Reviewing in his mind what he had just seen, he gasped in amazement. Using his remote magnifier, he scanned the beach front, It revealed a populated beach, complete with homes and roads, vehicles and vegetation and people! All he observed was at an incredibly tiny scale.

He quickly calculated that the majority of the creatures he observed on the shoreline were less then half an inch tall, compared to him. A quick calculation revealed that the inhabitants of this island, intelligent or not, would see him, if they were able to, as being over eight hundred feet tall! Cory tried to imagine what he would think, seeing a being eight hundred feet taller than himself. He laughed off the idea, It was inconceivable. Would they feel threatened? Are they armed? How intelligent are they? What is their technology level. All these questions, with no answers. It was obvious to him, that these tiny beings would indeed consider him a threat. That’s when he dove back under the sea and decided to re formulate his plan of action.

“Oh my gosh” He said to himself in stunned amazement,

“I gotta contact Yelid. And let him know” He then thought about Punim and rolled his eyes, trying not to imagine what would be happening if Punim landed in a populated area. Are there populated areas? Are there cities? There must be!

This he had not anticipated. It was important that he return to the ship and get his bearings. As he ducked his head back underwater, he wondered if he had already been seen.

It was important to determine if the life forms, as tiny as they were, would be able to communicate with him. He quickly made his way back to the Monopod, gained entrance and re booted the official Protocol procedures. There was scant little information dealing with size differences, One thing the rules did say, was to avoid contact unless observed and invited.

“Yeah sure” Thought Cory,

“And don’t go stepping on the population” He chuckled to himself, turning back to the communication console, and running through the frequencies. He wondered, as he studied, what communication might be like; How would they hear his voice? Would it be too loud? He might have to activate an overvoice device to adjust to the differences. After making some adjustments he was satisfied that if one of the tiny beings was capable of speaking, He would be able to hear and respond, Could it work? Even with the porta-translator on the strap, He could only guess.

It was seven thirty in the morning and Dr Baxter sat on the observation deck of the meteorological observation station on the high point of the island. The sun was peeking through the cloudbanks, and the air was warm and sultry, but there was something different, He could feel it in the air. The birds were circling oddly; the wind would shift direction, pick up and die down. Dr Baxter knew this feeling, he had experienced it before back in 2004 and came to recognize it. Earthquake weather.

He glanced at his seismographs, The memories of the great Tsunami haunted his nightmares, He was there in Sri Lanka, he remembered the deathly calm as the water rushed out to sea, stranding boats in the harbor lying on their side; Then the waters came, rushing back like a stampeding herd of elephants, like a crashing jet rushing in. Buildings were pushed over and anyone on the ground was washed away in the jetstream. The doctor pinched the upper bridge of his nose. He glanced across the island resort. It had no real defense against a Tsunami. And then there was that hallucination. Damn, he thought, it looked so real.

The ringing of the phone startled him, It was his friend in Japan, they detected a shifting of the tectonic plates, at a location eight hundred miles North East from The Doctors Island. A Tsunami watch was to go into immediate effect. The Island would have two hours before the wave would hit. Dr Baxter contacted the police first, then the Media information channels, he gazed up, back over the horizon, it looked peaceful, with no indication of the impending disaster. Ten minutes later, he could hear the Islands alarms sounding. He knew it was just an exercise; there was really nothing that could be done to protect the Island from the impending disaster.

Dr Baxter was scanning the military channel, He would request rescue help, once the wave struck. He scanned the earlier meteorological reports, and found the mention of an unidentified object, that could have landed in the waters off the island. No one had seen anything. There were no further reports of the object, after Four in the morning.

Visual confirmation verified that there was a wave, traveling incredibly fast, and picking up speed. It would hit the Island in an hours time. The drills the Islanders practiced would be a sham. There would be a terrible loss of life.

The Doctor glanced at his radio set, sitting by the window. It was an act of desperation, but he had to try. The image he had seen, of a giants head and shoulders, lifting above the ocean surface, earlier this morning, could not have been a dream. Even though it disappeared from view, it might still be out there, maybe even in a craft with communication devices. It was worth a try, and in fact it was the only hope of the Islands survival. Dr Baxter carefully adjusted the dials, and put the earphones to his head.

“Attention giant boy, are you out there? Can you hear me?” He felt like a fool, reflecting on how stupid he sounded. He continued,

“Giant space boy, are you listening, please respond” Silence. The wave would hit in forty five minutes, and here he was trying to call a hallucination.

“Giant space boy, Please answer, we need your help” There was a break in the hiss, The doctor adjusted the frequency and repeated his message.

Cory sat listening to the signals emanating from the planet, just static with a background sound of voices. He was about to turn off the set, and check on the food synthesizer, when he caught a single voice singled out from the background, he determined that it might be from a nearby transmitter, he fiddled with the dials to bring in the signal clearer as he opened the Translator functions.

“Space boy, this is Dr Baxter from the Planet Earth, we need your help, please contact me” Cory, startled, dropped his pocket smart guide, tuned back to the radio, affixed the frequency dial and responded.

The blast of a transmission nearly knocked the phones off the doctors head. The frequency was also picked up by the Generals exploration crew five hundred miles south.

“Are you picking up this signal?” said the petty officer to his chief, as he honed in on the frequency.

“I think we found our second visitor.” The General replied.

Back on the Island, Dr Baxter adjusted the volume control, and bit his lips as he received the new transmission.

“This is Cory, I can hear you, my translator is receiving your message. I do not know your world, how can I help you?”

Without a chance to reason, or access the situation, the Doctor quickly explained that the Island was in imminent danger of a giant wave. Hundreds would be killed, and it would hit the Island in less then half an hour, already the water was rushing from out the bay. Cory could measure the current from his Monopod.

I don’t know how large you are, but could you block the Island with your body, so the wave does not wash over it? You would save hundreds of lives. We can talk again after the wave is deflected, but we don’t have time now, Can you help us, Please”

Cory realized what he had to do, Saving lives would be a good way to begin communications. His scanner showed that indeed there was a moving wall of water now approaching the Island, and time was precious. He would position himself on the north eastern shore. He set the Waterskin controls, and quickly left the ship. He would approach the Island, and when he was close enough to wade to the shore, he would lie down parallel to the islands vulnerable coast, half submerged, in the shallower waters, with the Island to his front, and the ocean at his back. In so doing, would block the force of the incoming Tsunami deflecting it. It would hit his back and eventually dissipate.

Doctor Baxter called the police department, on his special line, all the islands communications were jammed, and the people on the verge of panic.

“That’s right” The Doctor said,

“A space giant will block the wave” He, in truth realized how ridiculous he sounded, but he had to alert the authorities, tell them not to panic further, and to alert people to stay indoors. They would laugh at him, and consider that he lost his mind, up to the point when they saw the huge figure emerging from the waters.

Panic filled their hearts and many fell to ground in terror. On the Northeast shore, the people stood aghast, as they saw first the water breaking a mile out. A phantasmagoric figure in the mist seemed to be arising from below the surface, First an enormous head and shoulders, then the arms and torso. It was striding toward the land, and looming higher in the sky with each step. Cars on shore collided with each other, as the drivers observed the incoming figure. Cory was less then two thousand yard out, his body, now mostly out of the water was revealed. In their panic, few stopped to assess the giant as being a young boy. The chief of Police, who had received Dr Baxters warning call, could only say to himself,

“Damn! I must be as crazy as the Doctor.” The pistol at his side would be useless against such a titan. He could not imagine what would be worse; the Tsunami that could be now seen on the far horizon, closing in with the speed of a freight train, or this monstrous apparition of a giant nude boy approaching their Island. All those observing, held their breath as they watched the boy draw near. Cory surveyed the situation, determined that he was close enough to provide a sufficient barrier to protect the island and it’s tiny inhabitants. He lay himself down, lying on his right side, the waters lapping at his body as he rested himself offshore, leaving half of his body submerged and half towering over a hundred feet over the surf. He awaited the oncoming wave.

The Doctor was right, there was not much time before the waters would engulf the small island. In spite of himself, fear gripped the Doctor as he saw the giant approaching the Island.

“Oh my Lord” He thought to himself, “What have I done?” Reflecting on the possibility that this creature could be hostile.

The giant lowered itself into the waters off shore. The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief, and reflected that this plan might actually work; The boy was even taller than the doctor imagined. Nothing alive could be so huge,even lying on its side, The creature was immense. Its body formed a wall, that extended halfway around the coast. Sheltering the populated port, and most of the central part of the island. This was incredible beyond imagination, the Doctor reflected. The villagers fishing ships were like upturned Pistachio half shells floating before the boy. The larger tourist ships in the bay, like toy boats in a child’s bath tub. The Islanders who saw the vision fell to their knees. The wave would destroy them, but this giant creature could easily do the same, No one, except a few of the police had any idea what was happening.

He looks to be about ten years old, accurately calculated the Doctor, in awe of the Colossus. The deadly tsunami would splash Cory’s back like a wave in a kiddie pool. Its savage force would be subjugated as the rushing waters repeatedly hit and subsided. Three times the wave would strike him, each time will less force than the preceding wave. Until the threat was gone. All watched in awe, as a spray of water arose from behind the reclining giants back as he took the hit, meant for them.

At this point all on the Island were now aware of the giants intention. They had been saved. The Doctor collapsed at his radio in joyful prayer and exhaustion. All he could do was repeat, “Thank You” into the mike.

Cory could not help but smile, he too was amazed at replaceing this race of tiny people. He continued to lie still after the threat was gone, observing the people on the beach, as he waited for the tides to return to normal.

Once he assessed that the danger was over, He stood back up slowly, Water pouring off his body as he arose and turned his back on the island. The population gave a collective gasp, and watched somewhat relieved as the boy returned to the sea. Some feared he might decide to explore the island, and crush everything in his path. But most on the Island cheered. There was not only an air of relief, but a sense of celebration, A giant overlord had revealed itself from the oceans depths, and saved the inhabitants of their small Island paradise. This was the stuff of legends.

The frequency that Cory used to talk to the Doctor, had been picked up by the Military, already on their way to rescue what would be left of the Island. General Holland back at the base, immediately recognized the trace frequency, and made some notes. His Seals scouted the horizon, The Island was before them, and the waters calm. Cory lay breathless in his Monopod reviewing the events that transpired. He set his controls on Nap mode hoping to conserve energy, thinking of his tremendous adventure and the tiny world he had discovered. He wished Yelid were there to share it with. The Seals located the presence of the alien vessel submerged beneath the surface. They expected to replace mass destruction, and found a jubilant population instead.