Battle Stations
The power remained, and all equipment was still operational but there was a stark change to the atmosphere. It was apparent that a ship of otherworldly origins was present and very close.
Lurch ran to the generators and after making quick checks realized that they were all running with different outputs. "Why are the generators all running different r.p.m.'s?" Lurch yelled over to Dr. George. Not knowing every detail was something that irked Lurch but this was something that really startled him.
"If I were to explain it, you would perhaps be more afraid." Dr. George yelled back. Sketch furrowed her eyebrows as she was also perplexed by this. The generators never indicated this behavior before and now it seemed they were rigged to react to something they did not quite understand.
However, the whole base was on high alert and Dr. George did not have time to explain anything. Finally Isotophes looked up from where she was watching the radar. "I can't believe that you, of all people, don't know why!" She said with annoyance. "I mean, you're supposed to know about every last UFO sighing all the way back 4000 years ago, and you don't know why the generators are built in a way to pick up varying r.p.m.'s on this land surface? They're a simply a gauge to have a heads up on the what and who!"
Dr. George noticed that Penn and Teller had hidden themselves behind the large basket that Teller tripped into earlier. He shook his head and continued checking all radar monitors.
Isotophes looked over at Sketch and Ben and then sighed, giving in to explaining something she wasn't ready for. "It wasn't just my love of the stars that I went into astronomy, it was a primal need to want to reach out, and see vast space above. I didn't start out in the field of science as an astronomer. I was a paleontologist and digging up fossils was fine with me until I was literally forced underground." Isotophes was now visibly anguished. "I was digging up other matter that had been discovered buried deep within the earth. Things I didn't know existed and wish I had never found." She related with a heavy heart. "After that I wanted to keep my focus on loftier things. Outer space was a way to heal. To feel there was endless space and that closed in earth was all behind me. The deeper you go, the vibrations, the generated energies of anything that far down would be very noticeable. It's just a safety measure since we're close to a lot of areas that were classified as. . .uncharted territory. They always have signatures of some kind."
Sketch looked up through the telescope nearby. "So the generators are set in r.p.m.'s to coincide with earth vibrations as well as vibrations on other planes?"
Isotophes nodded. "Yes. The slower the rotations, the closer a ship is, the faster the rotations, the closer the bad guys are. They can only use a set of frequencies they know and they've redesigned some ships to drain power from even the cheapest generators, but we've been long prepared for anything like that."
Dr. George inserted, "And the generators will match the power output and disguise the base from being detected. So if we lose power, then you know something very powerful is out there. But for now, it's the usual."
"It's usual to have UFOs flying around out here?" Penn asked from behind the basket. Sketch rolled her eyes. "Depends on what kind, Renfield." Teller snapped back "Hey, I'm Renfield!"
Lurch was confused. The answer was eluding him. "So why all the different r.p.m.'s?" Dr. George looked over at him and started to walk over to the generators. "They are all designed to run on what output is being driven by the core function." He answered.
"How very. . .Tesla." Lurch grinned. But it was shortly determined that the ship hovering overhead wasn't occupied by any being. That it was, in fact, empty.
"Oh no, no, no." Dr. George stammered. "NASA is already stealing another one!" He yelled and the rest of team sprang into action. Apparently there was activity at Area 51 that they did not detect. The bare landscape outside was almost pitch black. They were isolated. It was good for research purposes, but in an emergency, it would be the worst possible situation. They all looked up at the stormy sky. They saw a bright red flash in the sky coming from the cloud. The cloud dissipated to reveal a huge ship, then the cloud thickened over it again, hiding all traces of the ship.
A high-pitched whine pierced through the air. The radio signals were caught on Sketch's computer and started recording all incoming data from the cloud. The wind picked up and a few members of the team clasped their hands to their ears and fell to their knees. The sound was unmistakably a tractor beam hitting the sides of the ship.
"I'm not a goddamned scientist, I'm a magician, so when UFOs are being stolen from Area 51 for no apparent reason, I'd guess an alien abduction of their own ships. Or a ship-jacking. Which is it? I told you it was all Teller's fault!"
"I'm Renfield, damnit!"
"This wasn't supposed to happen until later on, tonight!" Isotophes said as she lined up the telescope with the sky-view window. Sketch was soon behind her monitors and Ben, with Dr. George, were typing on their keyboards as fast as they could. Penn, Teller and Mole sat at the table nearby, looking exhausted.
"Most planets rotate in a prograde motion, so we're going to target its linear movement at a 6.0 range that should cover the mean distance if we got this right." Isotophes said as she gave Sketch a thumbs up.
"I'm tracking at a 90 degree angle. If we overload the output level in that thing, we'll be reading about twelve thousand feet into the air. Giving plenty of room for error in determining the distance," Sketch said as she handed Ben a clipboard with graphs attached.
"Dr. G, give me what kind of radio signals we're getting from this thing," Isotophes cued the others as she adjusted her lenses. "We're only getting two right now, 3000 megahertz and 130 gigahertz." Breaker reported and Dr. George confirmed.
"Shit! We're not staying invisible for long if NASA's getting this!" Sketch pointed out.
"I can reset the previous radians to the grid we set up earlier, we should be within the range without detection." Breaker said.
"No, you'd still have to go outside the compound, it wouldn't operate properly from inside." Nuzz answered as he got the ship within range on the equipment they brought with them. "There she is, come on, baby, you can do it, we're not here, good, unsuspecting pilot. . .yes. . ."
"There is no pilot on this one!" Dr. George reminded him. Nuzz looked back at the others. "So now what?" He asked in frustration.
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