“So their numbers are increasing then,” Ellis said, looking over at Stu for some kind of confirmation. The astronaut and physicist nodded, and Ellis shook his head. “Damn it — it wasn’t supposed to be like this! When Ike signed that treaty in ’53 it was supposed to be a few abductions, a few tests, just what they needed to stay alive.”
“It won’t be the first time a president was lied to,” Carl said beside him.
“I figure it had to have started after the incident in ’75,” Stu said, speaking quickly before the obvious frustration Ellis was feeling could manifest itself in harsh words. “After that they probably figured the cat was out of the bag, at least in regard to U.S-Gray relations, and they notched-up their harvesting.”
“Harvesting,” Carl scoffed, “that’s one way to put it!”
“I’d rather use that term than describe the process of stealing these women’s innocence, robbing them of their humanity, and turning them into some other life form entirely… and don’t think for a second that women aren’t being used more than men now.”
“How do you know?’ Ellis asked. It was well-known even back in the ‘50s that the Grays were experimenting on women a lot more than men, but had that increased further?
“Let’s just call it a hunch for now,” Stu said, “but one that I think I’ll be able to prove shortly… that is if you let me into Dulce.”
“Whoa, Stu!” Ellis said. “You know full-well we need your expertise here on the surface.”
“And out of danger’s way,” Carl added.
“You need me in that base,” Stu protested as he shook his head and crossed his arms in front of himself. “You have no idea what could be down there, no idea what kind of weaponry or gadgets or technology could kill you in flash, or aid you beyond your wildest beliefs.”
“I hear Carter’s looking for a new speech writer,” Carl said, looking over at Ellis.
“Oh, c’mon!” Stu nearly shouted, and both Ellis and Carl fell into laughter.
“Alright, Stu,” Ellis finally said when he’d pulled himself together, “we’ll let you in — but on one condition!”
“Which is?”
“That you don’t come in until the top level is secured.”
“And the lower levels as well,” Carl added, and Ellis nodded.
“The lower levels,” Stu did shout this time, “you’ve got to be kidding! How are you going to secure those lower levels?”
“We’re working on a plan now,” Ellis said while giving a frown to Carl.
“And we’re not getting too far on it standing here and flapping our gums,” Carl replied. “Let’s get back to Blue Lake and leave you here, Stu, to reverse-engineer this sucker.”
Stu smiled for the first time that day. “Oh, now that’s something I’ve been looking forward to!”
16 — Drawing Lines
“What the hell just happened back there?”
Turn slammed his helmet down on the floor and it bounced against the opposite wall, the steel clanging around the room.
“Take it easy,” Robbie said, “we just got hit by the Psy’s, that’s all.”
“The… ’Psy’s’?”
Across the room Tommy shook his head and muttered something under his breath, and that just made Turn want to punch someone’s lights out even more. David must have noticed this, for he spoke up.
“He means Psychics,” he said, giving Tommy a nasty glare, although that just resulted in the hard-headed soldier smacking his hand into his fist and looking tough. David brushed it off with a scoff and looked back to Turn. “They’ve wiped out hundreds of us that way… maybe thousands.”
“Thousands?” Turn said quietly.
“Oh, don’t be all melodramatic,” Robbie said with a laugh. “Turn, they’re not as dangerous or as powerful as you might believe, they’d want you to believe, or,” he looked around a bit and then lowered his voice before pointing up toward the surface, “they’d want you to believe.”
“Don’t give me that horseshit,” Tommy said, pounding his bunk for good measure, something that caused it to skitter across the hard concrete floor a bit, “if those aliens wanted to wipe us out they could, any moment, any way.”
“Then why aren’t we dead?” David said.
Tommy scoffed. “They’re toyin’ with us.”
“Yeah, toyin’ with us,” Robbie mocked, “and I guess that’s why we just wiped out a whole nest of ‘em in Montana and plan to wipe out a base worth here in New Mexico, huh?”
“A nest?” Turn laughed. “Give me a break — we killed seven Grays, nothing more than a drop in the bucket.”
“Drop in the… I’m sorry, but can someone please explain what Turn means?”
Tommy looked over at Fred and shook his head then laughed.
“Ah, hell,” he said, “I’ll explain it, but I can guarantee you’re not going to like it.”
Fred nodded.
“Alright, here goes. The Grays abduct humans and animals in order to acquire the bodily fluids they need to survive. They implant small devices near the brain which potentially gives them total control and monitoring capability, ensuring once a host is taken, it can always be taken again.”
“Like collaring a dog,” Robbie laughed.
“These devices are very difficult to detect,” Tommy continued. “When we’ve analyzed the devices the best our experts have been able to come up with is that they use some sort of crystalline technology combined with molecular circuitry, and together these ride on the resonant emissions of the brain and the various fields of the human in question. Information is entrained on the brain waves and each and every time we’ve attempted to remove the implants it’s resulted in the death of the human that we’re trying to save.”
“This is usually due in part to the fact that the implants are attached to major nerve centers, and once attached the nerve tissues grow in and around the implant essentially making the implant a part of the nervous system,” David said, standing up for a moment. “When relatively unsophisticated medical procedures are used in an attempt to remove the implants, major nerve centers are damaged as a result, causing severe injury or even death.
“Who do they take most?” Fred asked.
“I can tell you that the most common abductees are petite women in their early twenties or early thirties, dark haired boys between five to nine, small to medium size men in their mid-twenties to mid-forties,” Jerry said with a sigh from across the room, as if he was saying something he’d rather not. “But, let me stress that there are all types of people being held against their will in the Dulce Base! There are tall heavy men and women, teenagers, elderly folks and very young girls in the cages and the vats. I only mention the most common age-size are the small young men and petite women. The boys are favored because at that age their bodies are rapidly growing, and their atomic material is adaptable in the transfer chamber. The young small women are frequently very fertile. The men are used for sperm. I have no idea why they prefer small to average size men.”
Fred’s face lost a bit of color. “Jesus!”
“Yeah, but don’t you think it’s funny that none of the briefings we had over the past week or so have mentioned why the Grays are here, why they broke that treaty, and why we need to get back into that base so bad?” Lewie said from across the room.
“You know why,” Tommy said, looking over at him with narrowed eyes and in the calmest voice Turn had heard him use yet.