Science fiction
Ch. 5-Area 42: Code Word, Cracker 10
Chapter Five: There’s something odd about the basement stairs
This is the fifth chapter of a science fiction romp coauthored by Dan Lee. Here’s a short synopsis of what has happened so far, and a bit more detail on who Amanda really is. Links to all the previous chapters are provided at the end of this one. Neither of us knows where this is going, but we’re having fun and hope you are too!
Amanda had always known she was unusual. People liked her but felt her to be unapproachable—not unfriendly or cold but simply “intimidating” because she seemed so brainy and gifted in many ways, but Amanda had never done anything to actively intimidate anyone. Quite the opposite.
However, Amanda did find most people rather boring and shallow. So she grew her own food, offered extras to her neighbors, and minimally participated in community activities. Everyone knew Amanda but no one really knew anything about her.
Amanda had lived in that stately antebellum farmhouse for most of her life, having arrived there with her parents at the age of three. Her father’s last post as an Air Force officer and pilot was at Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam. Amanda was born in the military hospital there, which was located next to the building discretely labeled “Area 36,” a secret facility commanded by her dad.
When asked, he told people that his specialty was “communications.” He wouldn’t say more about his work beyond that simple descriptor, but it later became known that Area 36 and Area 51 and all the other secret “Areas” strewn around the United States and its territories were much more than R&D facilities for developing advanced comms.
Area 42 and the Cracker Tin
Area 42 had been covertly installed in the middle of Amanda’s farm by her father decades ago as yet another secret comms research area. However, “comms” wasn’t about line-of-sight radio signals, and satellites didn’t exist back then (at least, not that the public was aware of), and Turing had solved all the code-breaking challenges of war-time. This was something else. Something much bigger, much more important.
And now Amanda had accidentally dug up part of the site, found the strange crystal and the little black book that her father had buried behind the vegetable garden. She would soon learn the significance of the cracker tin, its contents, and those little green men.
So, who was Amanda’s father, really? He was an unusual man, highly intelligent, deadly handsome with a charming glint in his eyes that made women swoon. But who was he? Amanda regretted not having asked him more questions when he was still alive. She was her father’s daughter, no doubt, and she was certain there was a deep secret about him, and therefore about her.
Meanwhile, the cracker tin has been unearthed, the unobtanium crystal exposed, and the little black book containing all her father’s instructions has hidden itself. And little green penis-shaped entities are attempting to materialize in the basement, hoping to gain her attention.
Chapter 5: There’s something odd about the basement stairs
Something very odd indeed, in that Amanda had never noticed that doorway in the kitchen until now. Even more strange was that she didn’t notice that she hadn’t known about the doorway. She simply opened it and began the descent. Down and down and down, each step illuminating as she went.
She was reminded of a night dive off Grand Cayman Island some years back, where every motion of her fins and body parts left a lingering trail of eerie bluish-green bioluminescence.
At last, she could see, or rather, sense, Flavio and Joe, who were partially materialized— only partially because she had dug up part of the materialization field that her father had buried on the farm.
“This is nuts,” she thought. “Why do I keep seeing little green penises?” The very idea of a green penis nearly gagged her, but it had been so long since she’d seen one of any hue…
Her thoughts trailed off there, distracted by voices—voices more inside her head than actually heard. She felt something she hadn’t felt in years—that thrilling fizz of electric butterflies flapping about in her abdomen.
With the crystal in hand, she approached what wasn’t there at all, or was it?
Amanda is about to discover who she really is, and that she’s a wanted woman. Find out what Joe and Flavio really want, what’s the purpose of the worm-hole at the bottom of the stairway, and WTF are Bdelians doing here anyway?
Thanks for reading! Below are links to all previous chapters: :D