RAYGUN RETRO:

B. SWITCH

1973...
Harrison bent over and picked another rock sample from the
white sand. He lifted up the eerie looking rock and showed it
to Eugene. The first thing that caught Eugene's eye was the
faint green light-like substance coming from within one of the
cracks of the rock-like material.
"You said one more, didn't you, Eugene?" Harrison said. He
began walking.. no, hopping back to their lunar excursion
module before Eugene could say anything.
Back at their ship, the Apollo 17, Eugene looked at their
sample collection with satisfaction. "Not bad for the longest
moonwalk in the history of mankind," he said. "It'll be ages
before anyone beats that record."
"Dream on, 'gene. Humans have been constantly making the
impossible possible throughout this century. Maybe during
the next mission humans would be floating on the moon's
surface or sand surfing, or something like that. Before the
century's out your record would have been broken by a large
margin."
"Our record, Harry."
They started their ship and headed back home. Eugene
caught sight of Harrison looking back at the moon. "You left
something down there, pal?" asked Eugene smiling.
"What? No, no. I..I thought I saw something down there.
Must have been trick of the eyes. And here I was starting to
enjoy space..."
*
I cast a quick glance out of the window of my cockpit and
marveled at the sight. From the height I was at, it was like I
was staring down at one of the biggest, well-detailed and
accurate World Map spread below me. The Missis would still
not believe me if I told her I had been right all along - the
Earth was round, not flat.
 "A'right, yank, you've had your fun. Now head back to base,"
one of my 'eyes' from the Control Station spoke through the
com.
"Spare me a couple more, sir," I said. I had already spent
three-hours during this spaceflight, and I still needed to soak
in more.
"Negative, son. You barely have enough fuel left for a proper
landing... I think, what more another free roam."
"I guess I should just turn the ol' girl back," I sighed.
Before I could turn the ship around I noticed two lights
ahead. Their eerie glow was the one which attracted me to
them. At first they moved perpendicularly, then they started
darting from place to place, never leaving each other's sides.
"You seeing this, sir?" I asked. "Any other flights scheduled to
pass by here?" I joked. No reply came. "Sir?" Nothing. Instead,
I heard a couple of statistics along with one word.. UP.
The hair on the back of my neck slowly rose as the lights
came closer. It appeared like they were closer, but sometimes
they appeared a great distance away than what they showed -
almost as half the distance to the moon, sometimes. Could
they be extraterrestrials? Aliens? No, no. Several allegedly
true stories of UFOs crash landings and encounters began to
flood my mind.
I averted my eyes from the sight and cursed myself. Aliens?
That's what I was going with? I blamed my recently discovered
imagination - one of the after-effects I got from my training
for this flight.
I looked at where the lights had been and found nothing.
Laughing nervously, I said, "Not happening. Moving on." I
turned the ship around and headed back home.
Back at the base, after all the routine check-ups, I was
escorted to a room at the far end of the main building. I had
never been to this part of the base before. Maybe this had
something to do with my flight, or the recording copy of my
flight that I had been promised... Then again, it could have
been about what I had 'seen'.
The room wasn't big, but it was big enough to contain more
than a single chair and a small table that currently furnished
it. The guard who had brought me to this room only motioned
for me to sit, and then he left without saying a word. I had
barely settled when three men came into the room..Three
men in suits.. Black suits. And I knew neither of them. Never a
good sign.
They closed and locked the door then approached where I
sat. The one leading them was carrying two briefcases which
he placed on top of the table. I expected a copy of my flight
from the briefcase, but I was disappointed. The first one
contained an hourglass which he placed in front of me, and in
the second was some kind of watch or something which he
placed closer than the hourglass. This watch thing only had
one hand. It would have been pyramid shaped if the top
pointy part had not been missing.
"What happened out there?" I was asked by one of them. I
didn't like the tone of his voice right from the word go.
Really, I thought. No formalities, no asking me how my flight
was or anything like that?
"What happened to me? What happened to all of you and
your communication equipment? It just died on me. What if
something happened to me out there?"
They stared at each other briefly.
"We understand what you're feeling, Mr. Connors. That was
a mistake on our end. But, that's not why we're here. We just
want you to tell us all that happened to you, all that you saw
and felt from the moment you took off."
"Everything?"
"Everything would be worth applauding."
Why is he talking like that, I thought.
Before I could start, the one who had come in with the
briefcases pulled the watch-hand on the pyramid like thing to
its side and let it go. It started moving back and forth, and
every time it reached the center it made a sound. The sound it
made coming from one side was different when coming from
another. It resembled a ticking sound. He then flipped the
hourglass over and said, "Begin."
"Well..."
 I couldn't concentrate no more. I kept glancing at the
irritating second-hand which wasn't showing any sign of
stopping or slowing down.
"Mr. Connors?"
I looked up at them and found them all anxiously waiting. I
began. Once done narrating, I saw them looking at each other
again.
"Is that all?" asked the short chubby one who had come in
with the briefcases.
I nodded.
"Well," he continued, "I seen to have missed something. Can
you please restart from the part about the Earth being flat? If
you don't mind, Mr. Connors."
I sighed and started again, even though I did mind.
"Were you thinking of anything before you saw
these...things? Or did you by any chance happen to be
thinking of Extraterrestrials since you were in space?"
I sniffed, "I did think of them, but that was after seeing them.
And afterwards I did blame everything on my imagination."
"Your imagination?"
"Yes. It's been acting rather odd since I completed your
training." They're silent. "A round of applause for that," I
added smiling.
"Mr. Connors, have you recently been in the process of
consuming illegals, you know, drugs and stuff?" This was a
new voice. It was the one who had been silent all along. I had
seen him just staring at me. Of course all of them were, but
there was something about the way his eyeballs played on
me.
Drugs! Of all things?
"Heavens, no!" I said as calmly as I could. "I'll be damned if
I'm to get involved with such."
I calmed myself down a little and stared threateningly at the
damned second-hand that was now bloody annoying me. I
moved my gaze towards the men and saw them silently
staring at each other. Did they communicate silently or what?
"Look," I said, "why don't you just get the camera in my ship,
it probably captured something. Maybe after looking at the
footage you'll bloody stop questioning me so with such
ridiculous questions."
"We've got the footage."
"Joy! Now, I also need a copy. Need to show it to the Missis. I
know she'd love to see the view." I didn't lie. I also didn't tell
them the entire truth of why I needed a copy. Since it was
evident that these nipple-twisters were doing nothing about
all this, might as well do something myself.
"We did see the footage, but I'm afraid we can't give it to
you."
"But, I was promised..."
"We are aware of what you were promised, but the entire
video is temporarily classified. Shouldn't be seen by civvies,
yet."
Classified my foot!
"And," he continued,"we know what you saw out there.
Besides, you'll always have the memory up there, and you'll
treasure it. That I'm sure."
I saw what he was doing, so I decided to play along. "You
think so? I suppose you're right. You're the ones with them
fancy pants."
"Of course, we are. We'll try to bring this matter up to Upper
Management and, if they agree, we'll send you a copy of your
spaceflight. But don't count on it." He opened his briefcase,
an indication that they were about to leave. There couldn't be
a much better time.
"You said you know what I saw out there." They glanced at
each other. I smiled and continued. "Care to tell me so I don't
have nightmares?" I tried to sound like it was no big deal.
"Oh, yes," said the chubby one standing by the briefcases.
Even though he sounded as if he had forgotten to tell me, I
didn't buy it. "Apollo 17 has recently been out there, and we
think that they obviously dumped some water or any other
liquid into the vacuum..."
Wait, wait, wait, you think?
"We believe what you saw was nothing more but a mere
reflection from the water that had crystallized." Proud of the
far-fetched explanation he had given me, he replaced his little
time toys in their respective briefcases.
Once they left, I stayed behind for a few and wondered how
far he had stretched his mind to get what he had told me.
Probably not that far considering how stupid it was. Might
have been as far as he gets. Also, why had they detained and
questioned me if they knew that what I had seen was nothing
more but water crystals? Whatever the reason, I knew this
wasn't the last time I'd be seeing them.
As I left the building, I noticed something I hadn't whilst
inside. It was now dark! The parking lot was now almost
empty! Which was impossible since it'd mean I had been in
that room for close to four hours. The hourglass had also been
half-full, about thirty minutes gone, which was the time I felt I
had stayed in that room. Unless that hadn't been an
hourglass... Maybe it took more than an hour to empty...
Maybe.
As I boarded my car, a Ford Mustang Mach 2, an expensive
car which had come out a few months back, I heard
something ringing in my ears. It was the ticking sound of that
damned second hand! I looked at my pocket watch and
calculated what time I'd reach home after the two-hour drive.
It wouldn't be late, the Missis would still be awake, and
hopefully the kids.
I peeled out of the parking lot and made my way home. I felt
restless and uneasy - mostly because of the ticking sound still
ringing in my head and the voices of the men in black that
kept insulting my eardrums. I decided to think back to the
view I saw in space in an attempt to drive these sounds away.
My mind then skipped to the part with the strange lights, but
something was wrong. The memory wasn't strong and didn't
come with detailed signals like the others. The memory
seemed far away. The memory seemed to be fading. I
wondered if those men were behind this. But how?
Brainwashing?
It made sense. Not too much, but enough to make sense to
me.
 The car raced on the dusty road that led from the base. I felt
it before I actually saw it - the car behind me. I tried to make
out how far the car still was, and it was a great deal away.
From the height of its headlights, I was able to make out a
rough draft of how big it was. It was big.
The first thing that came to mind was the men in black. Had
they come back to finish me off? Maybe. Not today, I thought
whilst stopping the car. I felt underneath my seat for the
shotgun I always kept down there. I took it out and broke it to
see if it was loaded - it was. I left the car and walked a couple
paces from it into the thick brush that sandwiched the road.
The engine of the Mustang roared almost noiselessly. I had
left it running, just in case.
I chose a spot where I could see the approaching headlights,
be out of sight and close to the car. The headlights hadn't
moved since I stopped, they had just stopped. Had they seen
me stop? I thought of going back to my car and let speed lead
me to salvation, but before I could get up I saw something I
hadn't before.
"Christ," I said out loud the second I realized that these cars
did not belong to any I knew. They were too high one
would've thought them floating. And the way they glowed...
The images of the now distant flight flooded my memory. It
was the lights I had seen! I wouldn't miss that eerie glow
anywhere. They had followed me? Why?
I didn't wait to answer myself, I just ran towards my car and
drove off. Whilst glancing at my side-mirror, I happened to see
them begin moving towards me faster than this car could ever
go. Only when they were close did I notice that these lights
didn't belong to any large mass, they were just lights... They
were just two lights. On a normal day I would've stepped out
of the car and lost myself in their mesmerizing eerie glow, but
there was nothing normal about today. Hopefully tomorrow
would be better.
Before I had finished hoping for the best, one of the lights
struck close to the left side of the car and exploded. I lost
control of the car for a few. Before I fully had control of the
car, another explosion followed. I heard and felt the tyre
outside explode. The world spun a bit, and I saw the ground
slowly getting closer. I closed my eyes and prepared for
impact. The car overturned and rolled over thrice before it
came to a stand-still up-side-down. Without the seat belt,
both the gun and I had rolled along with the car. I shook my
pulsating head in an effort to force the cloud obscuring my
vision out of my eyes. Once my vision came into focus, the
first thing I saw was the wreck the car now was. I searched for
any signs of major injury, but found none. I did feel a warm,
sticky substance oozing down my face. Overall, I felt great.
That was when I saw it. A leg standing outside my car. It
looked like it belonged to an animal judging by how its knees
bent backwards. I knew of no such animals this close to base.
I searched in the pool of broken glass for my gun. When I did
find it the animal had gone. I still felt uneasy. I was unsure as
to what had occured out there. It could have been the men in
black... or something else. Whatever it was I wasn't going to
lay still and wait for it to come and get me.
I crawled out through the broken windscreen. The first thing
that came to my attention was a foul smell that resembled a
rotten egg. I closed my nose as best I could and looked
around. I found nothing outside. Movement from the back of
the Mustang came to my attention, so I limped in that
direction. At first I didn't see it since it was cloaked by the
darkness. I did notice the outlines which I began to rough
sketch in my head. Once done, my heart literally dropped into
my now knotted stomach. I was facing an almost black
humanoid slim figure that towered over me, standing almost
twice my size. The smell was stronger around this area.
The thing made no movement. It just stood there, staring.
The only things that moved were its small slant marble-eyes
and a slit at the bottom of the face which I took to be its
mouth. We kept on eyeballing each other, no one daring to
make the first move. I figured we both were shocked at the
apparitional being that stood in front of the other.
Eventually, I made the first move. This thing had tried to kill
me earlier, so I did what I was already equipped for. I raised
my gun slowly and pulled the trigger. The sound reverberated
in my eardrums and the woods.
I gawped at the creature which still stood in front of me. Its
long slender arm was outstretched, and in front of it were the
four pellets from the shell suspended in mid-air. The shells fell
to the dusty earth misshapen. I raised my sight from the
bullets on the ground and aimed at the creature, ready to fire
another shot, but it wasn't there anymore. I looked again at
the pellets and saw them still misshapen. I hadn't imagined
anything. Still, nothing that solid could just disappear.
Still aiming, I moved around looking for it. I smiled at the
amount of courage I felt... Then again, it could have been plain
stupidity.
Sounds from the bushes around me made me turn. Carefully,
I limped in that direction, index finger already trigger happy.
"Human!" A raw voice boomed at the back of my head. It
was impossible for me to hear someone else's voice in my
head, so I quickly turned without another thought and saw it
standing roughly three feet away. Immediately upon sighting
it, I sent more bullets on their flight. But, like last time,
nothing happened. The pellets had barely left the gun when
they stopped.
I let go of the gun once I realized that I wasn't the one
holding it up anymore. A dull sound came from the bullets as
they were crushed, along with the double barrels of the gun,
by the invisible force.
I barely remember all that happened out there, but I do
remember the creature holding me a couple of inches off the
ground, gripping my neck from ear to ear. I must have tried
prying off its fingers, but to no avail. No matter how far I was
gone, I could not mistake the loud voice in my mind shouting
for me to get out. Get out of where?
I had difficulty maintaining a constant vision focus: my vision
would blur, focus, blur again, then refocus.
My ears began to ring violently, making my head pulsate in
the process. I no longer had the strength in me to reach out
and touch my head. A cloud of darkness fell over me, and I fell
down screaming. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one
screaming. Someone or something was also screaming with
me.
It might have been my imagination, but before the darkness
completely covered me, I thought I saw my body lying
opposite me, screaming.
When I finally regained consciousness, the scenery had
changed. I was now in some sort of room which was spotless
white. White, silver and grey dominated about ninety-percent
of the room.
Had I been dreaming? I wondered. I must have, judging by
how I was still at the base, I must have. Yes, I had definitely
fell asleep during my check ups.
I tried standing up but failed. I tried again and, like last time, I
collapsed to the floor. My knees had bent the wrong way!
God, don't let them be broken, I thought. I looked at them
and, for the first time after waking up, I realized these were
not my legs. I was staring at those that belonged to the
creature I had seen in my dream.
A vision flashed briefly in my mind. It was about those
creatures. They were screaming in pain as their bodies fell
apart.
The large silver wall that had been in front when I started
seeing the vision had now disappeared. It had now become
transparent, and on the other side I saw two other
creatures...and me...or what had been me my entire life. My
body I was seeing outside wasn't walking straight, it needed
assistance from the other creatures. Eventually, it started to
snail without any help.
"What have you done to me?" I tried saying. No words came
from my mouth, just a pitiful croak.
"You had it coming," said the body that had been mine. It
didn't move its mouth, but I still knew it had been the one
that spoke or thought the words to me.
Me, I thought to myself, What have I done?
"Not the individual you, but your entire species."
"How did you hear what I thought of?" I croaked again.
 "Think? Please, human, you spoke, not think. Your mind is as I
expected, feeble. And feeble minds need only exist in feeble
bodies, such as the one which currently makes your being."
I had no idea what half of what this thing said meant, so I
decided to rewind: "What have we done?"
"Your kind took something from us. A beacon which had
been on satellite E-2."
"A beacon? A beacon for what?"
"Triangulation. And before you go any further with your
questions you should know that what I've already is all there
is to know for you."
I wondered what these things were, and almost as if it read
my mind, the creature spoke.
"We are Xanthorins. Just a handful of the last Empire."
Empire...Xanthor..., I picked up a few big words I knew of. I
smiled.
"And this planet has been chosen for one of the greatest,
inevitable feets that will change the course of events of this
planet, and help repopulate ours."
"Chosen for what?" I thought. I was beginning to get the
hang of this think-talk business. It kinda reminded me of my
imaginary friends.
"Harvesting, as you Earthlings like to call it."
"Harvesting?"
"Yes, you. The average Xanthorin only survives for only a
hundred-and-fifty thousand eatons; that's twenty-two in
human years. At the rate we are depreciating, there won't be
us in the next seven-hundred thousand eatons. Over the past
eatons we have observed how your forms can last up to four,
five and sometimes more than ours ever could."
"Wait, over the past eatons? You've been here before?"
"Yes. All thanks to a technical malfunction on board one of
our ship. If the crew hadn't crashed here, we would never
have found salvation."
"For how long has this crew of yours been here? And where
are they?"
"I have no idea. Your species found them, and we never
heard from them again."
 "How do you know it was us?"
"The beacon they left on your planet showed us the way and
everything. We eventually moved it to the white satellite for
safe-keeping. Turns out your species has again found a way to
it."
"How many?"
"How many?"
"Yes, how many of your kind is here?"
"We will soon be one kind, human. And the quantity of those
walking on this planet is more than even I'm aware of. Some
have gone rogue, came here, found a body and lived amongst
you..as you."
"Found a body? Like you 'found' mine?" He did not like it. I
knew my body and how it reacted, and right now I was
grateful for my inability to show no expression when I didn't
like something. He was up to something, I felt it.
"B-Switching. A method of bodily transit discovered before
your 'Great War'."
"B-Switching?"
"Something I need not explain. Pondering aimlessly is your
species' specialty. You do that. I've already given you enough
information."
"But, why now?"
"Believe me, meeting now was never our intention. We just
came to reclaim what's ours and have it returned where it
belongs. Our real encounter is going to be in the next forty-
seven years. The year 2020, I believe."
"2020? Why that far?"
"Your population is what determines the time we appear.
And by our calculation, your species will have reached a
population of about five billion. But don't worry, we intend to
make the whole thing...entertaining."
I didn't like the way he paused before saying 'entertaining'.
"Every single human will enjoy these series of events. We'll
start with your climate, and I won't be untruthful but
thousands will be...disposed of. For starters, flames and water
will rain down on your kind like never before. Two elements of
opposite signatures working side by side... Entertaining."
 "Wait, starters? What'll come next?"
"Let's just say it'll be something that travels from one human
to another, a parasite maybe. We're still working out the
details."
"What do you hope to achieve by doing all this?"
"Like I said, entertainment. And we do need only the strong."
"And what makes you so sure everything will play out as you
planned?" I sat upright.
"It's already started. Besides, there's no room for error.
We.Don't.Make.Mistakes."
I smiled, "Is that why you're almost extinct?"
It smiled
"You humour me, human. It's a pity you'll soon be disposed
of... All of you."
"All?"
He ignores me. I shut up also .
"I've never seen a B.S subject up close before," says one of
the creatures breaking the silence. I couldn't mistake it's
feminine voice.
I wondered why they couldn't just repopulate their planet
like normal beings.
"Watch," barked the creature in my body. It had used the
mouth this time! It was my mouth, my voice and my body, but
it wasn't me!
The creature left and I was left there sitting on the floor
looking at these other-worldly beings. I wondered what it was
going to do with my body.
My head rang again and I saw the vision again. This definitely
was the creature's thought that it had left when it switched
bodies - it's kind screaming as it perished. At first I thought I
was seeing something that had happened back on their
planet, but I noticed something familiar. It was this room I was
now in, that I'm sure.
Oh, no, I thought. It intended to kill me along with these
creatures.
The female creature looked at me with an expression on its
face. An expression I recognized all too well even on an alien
face - shock. Its open eyes and slit of a mouth proved this.
This was an indication that this had not been their plan in the
first place. It looked like some kind of suicide mission only one
knew. And here I was, in this room taking the creature's place.
The lights began to flicker a crimsonish color. The creatures
began to panic moving about pressing buttons. I tried
standing up but I collapsed again. I gave up and sat down, and
I waited...