Chapter 10

Light-years stretched on. They felt more like eons. Nessa repositioned herself in her seat and glanced at the dials and digits of her instrument panel. She eyed the message reader, the meters, and the metal square with a lighted imprint. When she had placed her hand on it, it had adjusted its size and shape to fit her hand. It scanned her hand with a light ray.

Am I going the right way? The question occurred to her.

Seconds passed, and the void around her gave way to a sphere of blue with green patches. It made Nessa think of her own skin.

She glanced at her instrument panel. A message screen lit up.

"Approaching Earth," she read aloud.

Nessa chewed on her finger and then said into her implant:

"Kommer, which green patch do I dock on?"

"There's a docking space, especially for residents of other planets," came the reply. "37.2431° N, -115.7930° W are the coordinates I'm getting."

A violent force met Nessa as she neared the planet before her. She placed her hand in the biometric scanner.

"Activating energy field," a digital voice announced.

The force softened, and the atmosphere opened long enough to allow Nessa's ship passage.

37.2431° N, -115.7930° W, was a stretch of brown, bald field. Beyond it lie slopes layered with foliage.

"You have entered the new Area 51, Roswell, New Mexico." The message reader announced.

Nessa's chest tightened. This was it. She deactivated the energy field, enabled landing gear, and adjusted the levers until her ship made impact with land.

The ground jolted her body. She clutched the arms of her seat. Alarms screamed around her. The jolting ended when the landing space had split in jagged halves. Metal lined each half.

Nessa looked down. The ground beneath her had vanished. Her ship rested on a platform.

The platform inched downward, and Nessa gasped at the dark, multi-level cube around her. The walls were a gunmetal color. It was open. She could see the levels where she was. Light was faint and came from the glass dome, and from the energy field container in the corner.

"Where are the others?" She wondered aloud. "This is a port for other planets, no?"

The platform locked into an indentation in the floor. There was a suspicious silence as she unlocked her harness, opened the hatch door, and stepped out of her ship.

She jumped at a sudden clamor. Voices echoing and footsteps pounding behind her. A door unsealed. Nessa watched, frozen, unprotected.