Death From Above

Space! An endless void of mysteries older than time itself. Mysteries that needed solving. At least, that is what she told herself as she stood in front of a white board full of complex equations. Dr. Amelia Kellian, was going over all of them, to make sure everything was right. The big mystery she was working on at the moment was how close an asteroid would pass by earth. A mystery solved by Dr. Marcos Hubowski, a famous scientist, and team leader in this particular astrology lab often called HSMA labs. Which of course stood for Hubowski's Space Monitoring and Astrology. She was looking over his calculations, to find out if and when the asteroid would intersect with Earth's orbit. However, there wasn’t much of a chance for impact.

“Amelia!” Called her friend Teagan, from across the lab. “You forgot to sign this report!”

“Oh yea!” Replied Amelia, “I forgot.”

“Yea because your head is always in those numbers.” Teagan said jokingly as she walked over. Watching her, Amelia didn’t think Teagan looked much like the rest of the scientists in the lab. She was tall, fit and blonde, features Amelia was kinda jealous of.

She wished she looked like Teagan rather than the just below average height, frumpy bodied, and uncontrollable dark haired look she had going for herself. At least, she didn’t think her hair looked bad hiding in a bun, which is what she always wore to the lab. She also didn’t like her glasses, though she can’t see very good without them. Teagan didn’t need glasses. However, Teagan was her friend, so she was always happy to see her.

“Here you go.” Teagan said handing her the paper stack and a pen.

“Thanks a lot.” Amelia replied sarcastically. She then scribbled her name at the bottom of the page. “There, I did it. Is there anything else?

“Nope, that’s it.” Teagan stated, with a false sense of professionalism.

“Right, well I need to go back to work now.” Amelia said turning back to the board.

“Funny how since this asteroid showed up, we’ve been hearing a lot about UFO sightings.” Teagan added, clearly not ready to go back to her work.

“I haven’t noticed.” Amelia said with her gaze not breaking from the white board.

“Of course not.” Teagan said not surprised. “You don’t know anything except what's in this lab. It was all over the news.”

“I don’t watch the news much, and you know this.” Amelia said turning her head and peering over her glasses at Teagan.

“Ok, I’ll leave you alone.” Teagan said before walking off. Realizing Amelia wasn’t in the mood for conversation.

“It’s nothing personal, Teagan, I just have to do this for Dr. Hubowski.” She said to her friend's back as she walked away. She wasn’t too worried, she knew that Teagan would get over it. Dr. Hubowski, on the other hand, wouldn’t be so forgiving.

Dr. Hubowski was a renowned scientist who was famous for his pinpoint accurate predictions. She knew he was a very prideful man, who didn’t like being second guessed. That was going to make things really hard for her, because while checking his work she found something that isn’t adding up right. The findings for today varied from the findings of the day before and therefore would change everything. She looked at the computer and the projection of the Asteroid seemed to have changed slightly.

“Dr. Hubowski, can you come here?” she asked him from across the room. He was bragging to his colleagues when he heard her, and he looked over at her with annoyance. “I have a question about something.”

“Of course, Dr. Kellian.” He said. She could tell he was trying to act positive. She didn’t like confronting him, but they were dealing with giant asteroids. “Now, what seems to be the issue?”

“The computer is tracking a different path from yesterday, and I’m afraid it will be on a new course.” She said, pointing at the Computer, then the white board.

“Oh? That’s odd. Let me see that.” He said, stepping between her and the board. He went silent as he began looking and reworking the equations. She stood there nervously for three minutes that felt like three hours. She kept looking at his dead scowl on his face.

“there we go!” he said sounding almost sarcastic. “I’ve figured it out!”

“What is it, Dr.?” She asked curious about how bad this is going to go.

“Thanks to your careful observation, I have calculated the new trajectory of the asteroid's path!”

“And that is?”

“when it passes by earth it will be exactly, a quarter of a mile to the left from it’s original path.” He said giving her a dead stare in the eyes. “Very minor, and we are still not in any danger.”

“I’m sorry, Dr.” she said shifting her eyes between the floor and his eyes. “I didn’t know it was so small, I didn’t mean to offend.”

“offend?” he snapped. “I am never offended by genius.” The word genius sounded more like a dagger stabbing into her, rather than a praise. He was too proud to admit that he was jealous that he didn’t find the change.

“Dr. Hubowski, please, I just...”

“I wanted precision, that is why I hand picked you for this job.” He said, cutting her off, with the phrase hand picked being his way of taking credit for all that she does.

“It’s getting late, you should head home.” He said before walking back to his colleagues.

“Thank you, Dr.” She mumbled where he couldn’t hear. She was ready to leave, but she hated being at home. The strange dreams she has keeps her from feeling rested somehow. Regardless, she turned and began to walk towards the door.

She began her ride home just driving in silence. She wished she could just enjoy her evenings, but instead she spends her time trying to avoid sleep. The nightmares are maddening. Those eyes burning into her soul. His eyes, the stranger in her room, that would just to stare at her. Every night, a dark and mysterious man would just walk out of seemingly nowhere just to stand over her. His stare was so intense, it induced all kinds of anxiety and feelings of torment. Before he would appear, she would see a series of symbols that she has never seen before. It was a nightmare emotionally, even though it was so simple.

As the car pulled up outside her house, a feeling of dread overwhelmed her. She got out of the car and walked towards the house. She tried to tell herself it all wasn’t real, but she couldn’t help but to doubt. When it is quiet and lonely, thoughts seem to run wild. She unlocked the door, and she walked inside. She turned on the lights and looked around for a moment. She took a deep breath, and decided she wasn’t going to let it bother her this time. Putting on a brave face, she walked into her room.

After putting her stuff away and taking a shower, she put on her pajamas. She sat down on her couch, she glanced over noticing a picture of her and her parents. She was an only child, so some might have said she was spoiled, especially with the money her parents had. However, there was just a lot of love. They made sure she was responsible, and didn’t depend on the money for everything. They lived modestly, and spent what time they weren’t working, together. They were astrologers as well, always looking to the stars, which inspired her to do the same. Their love for what they did made her excited to get through college. They brought her on their team, and they all three worked together for a while. Everything would have been perfect.

They were going on a trip to a science convention, and she didn’t go due to some extra work she had to do. Besides, she didn’t like the crowds of scientists who knew everything. Her parents left, and they never came back. The flight arrived on schedule, but they never made it to the convention. They vanished with no trace and no witnesses. She tried everything she could to try and find them. The police, private investigators, and herself all looking for them. After two years she began to lose hope, but she had a feeling they were out there. At times she wished she would have gone with them. However, if she had disappeared as well, there would be no one to look for them. She knew she couldn’t keep thinking about things like this, so she turned on the tv to find a way to distract herself.

The light from the television flickered in the dark room, and in her attempt to stay awake, she had fell asleep on the couch. Avoiding sleep can only last so long. What started as pleasant dreams of a better time, quickly became tainted. She was with her parents again, and they were happy, but things began to change. Strange symbols appeared in the background of her dream, and they slowly began taking over. Since it was a dream, she barely noticed the odd symbols, and it was as if they were normal. However, the whole dream eventually became just giant symbols cycling over and over, faster and faster. Finally she awoke, but she was in her bed. She quickly looked around, and out from the corner of her room appeared the strange man.

He looked like something out of a detective movie with the hat and trench coat, but his gaze pierced the soul. It was a dark gaze and felt evil. She couldn’t look away from his eyes. It was as if she was being forced to look, but the intense stare was enough to drive her mad. Her emotions ran wild. Angry that it was happening. Sad that she was trapped here. Anxiety from the dark gaze. Confusion as to what it meant. Then suddenly realization.

She realized she was dreaming. She knew she was in a dream, and she wasn’t caught in it thinking it was real. That intensified her anger. She began to scream at the man.

“Go away!” she screamed. “Get out of here! Get out!” She screamed louder and louder, until it became frantic. She knew it wasn’t real, but the man wasn’t even reacting. She felt trapped in the dream with no way out, so she was panicking. She was shaking her head with her hair flying everywhere, with her arms flailing. She finally screamed a long shrill scream at the top of her lungs, until finally she jolted awake.

Her eyes popped open, and she was breathing heavily, but all she could see was a bright light. After a moment her eyes adjusted and she looked around. She wasn’t at home. There were lights everywhere, strange noises that sounded like chatter. She was naked, and lying on what seemed like a table. She was no expert, but she knew an operating table when she saw one. She looked beside her, and there was a man lying on another table, but he was still asleep. She was panicking internally, but she couldn’t move or speak for some reason. Then suddenly, a tall figure loomed over her. It looked right at her and started chattering frantically with those strange noises she heard. Then he picked up what looked like a breathing mask and began moving it towards her face. She couldn’t move to resist it, so he placed it over her nose and mouth. Everything began growing blurry and fuzzy, until it went dark and there was only the symbols.

Once the symbols faded, there was the strange man again. She thought about what happened, then placed her head on her pillow. She couldn’t concern herself with the man right now, something else was behind this.

To be continued...