Knock Knock, Who's There?

 

            “Knock, knock…” I heard it but I didn’t believe it.
            “What? Raven?” I fired back. “Are you messing with me?”
            “Just say it, Jenae. It’s the (designer.) He loves humans because you crack jokes all the time.  He can't get enough of it!”
            “Who’s there?” I couldn’t believe what I was going along with.
            (“Bossy Cow!”)
            “What?” Pure Jr. high, where did he get his material?
            “Just say it, Jenae. It’s the only way to make him happy, now that he’s more or less dead.”
            “Bossy…(“MOOOO!”)” I tried. I did.
            A happy ship’s ghost is a good thing, I reckoned. Boo!
            “Where does he hear this stuff, Raven,” I had to know.
            “His work here is finished. He just monitors electronic media all the time, and he doesn’t need sleep. He is fully capable of reflecting music audibly!” whispered Raven. “Or broadcast TV.”
            “Terrific,” I said aloud.
            “You wonder why space travelers like to visit Earth? There you have it. You guys are crazy fun for them. Dangerous too! Adds a tang to the adventure. Visit Earth! If you’re lucky, you’ll come back alive!” said Raven.
            I felt like I was flying in the belly of the whale, or some such.  A very chatty whale.
            I began to wonder if there was any such thing as a drink of something onboard.’   
            “No. Physical requirements require preparation, Jenae.”
            Makes sense. You can’t download food and drink.
            Mark and Laura had gone to sleep in their alien tech lounges, warmed and softened, no doubt.
            Levi was staring down at the earth below us. Dawn would be coming soon. It was desert land rolling along below. We could see that much.
            “Where do you think we are?” I mused, looking down also.
            “This Raven knows, I’m sure,” he said.
            “Jenae, something is closing on our position!  It’s shielded and coming up fast! I don’t know what it is!” Raven reported.
            I didn’t even blink. “Evade!” I cried aloud.
            In the next second, even before a second, we were nowhere near Texas. We weren’t even near Earth.
            We saw nothing but deep dark space filled and burning with billions of stars. I gasped.
            There was no sense of speed. We didn’t seem to move. We just suddenly were someplace else.
            “Are you armed in any way, Raven?” I asked as Levi scanned the screen before his eyes.
            “Yes, Jenae. I am armed.”
            “Good to know,” I said. Martial music began playing. Not a good time for joking around.
            “Shut it,” I snapped. (“Oh fine,” from the ghost)
            “Take us to an uninhabited Earthlike planet, Raven. We need a break and some water or fruit or something.” I commanded this aloud so that everyone would know what was coming up.
            There’s a lot to be said for a ship like Raven. I wondered if there was anything he couldn’t do.
            Right outside it was daytime. The sky was blue. There was one sun in that sky. A slight wind tossed the tall grass before Raven around. There were trees, similar to familiar deciduous Earth trees. There were flying things quite similar to birds, though more leathery.
            “Raven, sample the air. Make sure we can breath it.” I figured that if the air was safe, the water would be too, if we could find water.
            “Raven, let’s keep moving along until we find water.” So he did keep moving over the surface of this lovely place until a small stream appeared.
            “Is the water good, Raven?” I asked.
            “Yes, Jenae.”
            “Please, set down low and open, Raven,” I said.
            He did so. Levi stepped out first. He looked in all directions, nodded, then said, “Mark.”
            Mark followed, then Laura. Both headed for the little stream, followed by their watchful father.
            I stepped out also. We all drank the water. There didn’t seem to be any fruit or anything edible, such as in the trees. Well, we wouldn’t be here long in any case.
            Now, as it happens, “uninhabited” is a matter of definition. Inhabited or uninhabited by what is a better question. I hadn’t been very specific with Raven on that subject. I had been thinking uninhabited by hominids such as ourselves.
            I will never know if they were planning to eat us or not, but on the meadow stretched out across the stream I saw a dozen or so large lionesque animals. They approached gracefully and slowly; manes being blown by the wind. Maybe they were sentient. I didn’t wait to find out. Plus, I could easily imagine carnivorous sentient creatures.
            “Back onboard!” I yelled. “Look on the other side of the river, guys!”
            The kids looked and ran to Raven, hopping inside quickly. I climbed in behind them followed by Levi.
            It had been a nice, but short, break.
            “Raven, I want you to hold a position at two hundred feet of elevation over Mike Flores’ house.”
             I wanted to look around before just appearing in his front yard. I was beginning to get a feel for the kind of situation we found ourselves in. I smelled pursuit.
            Below, we could see Mike’s ranch spread out in the morning sunlight. It looked so good, and homelike. No one was moving around that I could see. It was still early, even for ranchers.
            “Jenae, it’s here. It waited for you. It’s a robot, Jenae, a sniffer. There is no pilot, human or otherwise.”
            I couldn’t see it until it uncloaked at the last moment. It looked crab-like, or drone-like, more accurately. It didn’t seem to be aerodynamic at all, but it was coming fast and low, attempting to come up under Raven.
            “Destroy it, Raven,” I said.
            “Yes, Jenae,” he answered.
            So, it was an energy beam of some kind.
            The melted hulk of the pursuing craft fell harmlessly to the ground and lay there cooling off.
            Raven settled down just inches over Mike’s front lawn, such as it was, and we all piled out, and walked up on his big shady porch.
            “Please cloak, Raven,” I said before walking up the steps.
            I knocked on the door and we waited.
            Mike opened up and said, “you’re back!  And you brought everybody! Come in, come in!”
            Dr. Brown came upstairs. Introductions were made all around. Lisa took Mark and Laura into the kitchen to fix them some Tex-Mex breakfast quickly before cooking for the rest of us.
            Levi and I told Mike and Hector all about the last day.
            “I believe that we want to take our insurance money and buy here in Luminous,” I said, smiling around at everyone. Levi had already agreed to this.
            “It will be good to have you and your family and Raven nearby,” said Hector seriously. “We have a lot to do, Jenae, if we’re going to bring Babylon down!”