"Slow down, Kid. You don't know anything about this hardware. I doubt anybody does." Malcolm repositions his gun belt and wipes his brow of beaded sweat.
James Ian Pryce chuckles, "Above your pay grade. The super powers of the world all knew about different alien species since forever. Eisenhower made a pact with aliens years ago. Time irrelevant now of course."
"How the hell could you know that?" The Sargent grimly scowls.
"Hacked the Pentagon when I was eight. Never knew I even did it. Area 51, Dulce Base, Denver Airport, a dozen more locales. All interconnected by alien races allying with us to conduct our future. Those are just in the U.S., plenty more in the Soviet Union. Argentina. Norway. All housing alien tech and live aliens."
Malcolm squints at the boy's honesty. Did he really know as much as he said? Was he just playing games? Obviously if Ruby Goddard was his caretaker there must be more to the kid than meets the eye.
"Ships as big as a three block radius. Finding a door will take some time." The giant of a black man hissed looking around at the silver plated ship.
James turns to face him and reaches inside his jacket's interior pocket, pulling out a latex glove. He lifts it toward Malcolm with a devilish smirk.
"Easy as pie."
Pulling the glove over his fingers he fits it properly on his hand, then takes the time to straighten the micro thin fibers embedded within the glove. Once perfect he lifts his palm toward Malcolm to show him that his fingertips were glowing green.
"This ship is Goranthian design. The glove mimics the dna and identity of alien officers that habitat within these type of ships. Watch and learn Sarge."
He then touches the ship's surface and awaits a section of the ship to open up a lowering staircase of gravity steps.
"BEEJEEZUS!" Malcolm steps back three feet in awe, "You just happen to carry a glove like that on you?"
"Never leave home without it. I know. I know. Kid you're a God." James chuckles, "Just really smart. Come on it's safe to enter. Although I'm not certain what might be inside that's alive."
With a coaxed whistle James sends Xander up into the craft ahead of them. As the dog vanishes James looks at the ground and closes his eyes. As if in deep thought.
Malcolm observes with an unbelieving wince but keeps calm.
"Six dead. No survivors. There's seating for eight though. Might be Goranthian's still around somewhere. They're a docile race luckily. They age slower than humans do. Primarily they only eat plankton based carbon. That's why they generally reside off of Catalina Island in the trench. Come on Sarge."
James takes off up the steps and stops at the top to look back. Malcolm swallows dryly while gazing up at him in awe. Finally Malcolm treads the path and joins James.
"Hey Kid? How did you know there were six dead bodies and all?"
James kneels beside his faithful pup and scratches behind Xander's ear.
"Telepathic link. I see and hear through his senses. Brain surgery at age twelve. Trust me I have it all going on."
The teen then moves around exploring the ship with low visibility. He locates a panel to the left of the staircase and looks it over under the green light of his covered fingertips.
"Navigation failure. Power core depleted. This baby has been here awhile. Neutron core takes awhile to fade when unused. I think I can get it re-energized to keep us warm and safe from outside elements."
"Can it be flown?" Malcolm still stands unconvinced fully.
"Nope. Dead in the water. I'm smart but the navigation links are tied into their cerebral cortex. These guys have been dead way to long. Even if I fixed the ships navigation I would need a live brain. I read up on the Goranthian's but falsifying brain pattern's is more complex than mechanics. Quantum or socket turning."
"Anything we can use here at all?"
"Ohhhh yeah! I can hook us up big time."
He begins by removing a choker like collar around one of the bodies necks.
"These are Linguistic Collar's. With this we can decipher any language that it hears, or determine what we see in written form by coordinating with our own cerebral cortex. It might help if we find anybody else that survived here. French and German. Alien and Atlantean."
"Atlantean? Say what?"
"Come on Sarge. All the myth's are true. The Government's know more than they let on. You should know that."
"Yeah! Well I don't. Until now. What else do we have?"
"I'll catalogue things here. Why don't you go back and get the others. We can use the ship as a safe house."
"Not leaving you Kid. Colonel's orders." Malcolm stands tall.
"That's cool. C'mere Xander."
He crouches in front of his dog and attaches the alien collar to his existing collar.
"Go get the other survivors Boy."
The German Shepard swivels on his paws and darts down the steps out on to the rocks below. He then scurries through the wreckage to join Ruby and the others.
The group had made it's way out of the plane with Jack. The sun felt reviving accompanied by a gentle breeze.
"There's the kid's dog." Elle acknowledges it's approach.
Ruby and Cameron lower Jack to the ground, allowing Ruby to kneel and greet the dog.
"Where's your Master?"
The dog pants as the collar spouts what the dog hears and sends it back to James telepathically. In reply the collar speaks in James voice.
"Bring everyone over to the space ship. Front doors open."
Every set of eyes there bulge out as the dog appears to speak in human tongue.
Sophia in particular leaps behind Cameron for protection.
Ruby shakes her head, "Brainiac. Alright, James. We knew we needed a shelter for the night. Better there than us scouting all evening with Jack in tow."
"Bring the Colonel's arm with you. We can freeze it here. I think internal power can keep the cells alive long enough for me to re-attach it."
"You can give him his arm back?" Cameron huffs.
"We can rebuild him. We have the technology. Six Million Dollar Man. For you old folks. I love the classics."
"Whatever." Ruby turns to Elle, "Go wrap the arm up for travel."
The woman races away and return's in ten minutes. Once the group is ready they carry what was possible and head toward the large ship in the distance. It took them thirty minutes to reach the steps. They had to stop and marvel at it's grandeur.
"I always knew they existed. Fucking Brass." Cameron hisses and shakes his head.
Sophia drops her bags of food, water and knapsack of clothing.
"Is it safe?" She frets crossing her arms with a fearful glare.
In response Xander moves over and nuzzles her leg with a whine. He then yelps at her causing her to crouch down and pet him. The dog licks her face then her neckline. She giggles at the canines attempt to cheer her up. As the dog lays down at her feet his eyes look up at her.
Ruby growls and snatches Sophia up to stand beside her. The Colonel rolls her eyes and sternly looks at her.
