The Zeta Grey War: How it Began Read online

  The Zeta Grey War: How it Began

  by

  D F Capps

  Copyright 2017

  All rights Reserved

  ISBN: 978-0-9993594-0-2

  Prologue

  Thirty-two years ago

  Navy Lieutenant Howard J. Hollis knelt on one knee in front of Ellen McKinnon and opened the tiny box. His heart was beating wildly and he was so nervous he had to remind himself to breathe. Ellen stood there with a wide grin on her face as a tear raced down her cheek. She looked so happy, he couldn’t help but smile.

  “Ellen, I can’t imagine living another day without you. I love you more than life itself. Will you marry me?”

  He blinked and swallowed hard. He had rehearsed this over and over for the last several weeks, only to forget half of the things he intended to say.

  “Yes, yes, yes!” she said, as she did a little jump. She bounced up and down with such joy he almost started laughing. She held her left hand out, fingers quivering in anticipation.

  He pulled the diamond ring from the cleft in the velvet box and slid it gently on her ring finger. She squealed in delight as she held the diamond up to the light. As he stood she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. He wanted to remember this evening forever.

  Ellen insisted that they stop by her parent’s house so she could make the big announcement. Her parents were thrilled. They talked for an hour and then left. He brought her back to her small suburban bungalow and walked her to the door.

  “Can you stay?” she asked.

  He smiled and glanced down at the porch. “I’d love to, but I’ve got to be on the carrier at six for weapons inventory.”

  She sighed slightly. “It’s okay. This has been the most wonderful day of my life. Tomorrow night?”

  He grinned. “I can be here at eight. We can celebrate all night long.”

  She smiled. “Love you.”

  He kissed her gently and squeezed her hand before leaving. “Love you.”

  * * *

  His mind was drifting to all of the wonderful times ahead with her as he drove back to Long Beach, California. He looked up at the red traffic light and realized he needed to stop in a hurry. He slammed on the brakes and came to a screeching halt three feet past the crosswalk. Something fell to the passenger side floor. He leaned over to get a better look. It was Ellen’s white beaded clutch purse. She must have forgotten it in the car.

  He drove back to Ellen’s bungalow trying to figure out if he should wake her or just slip her purse through the mail slot in her front door. As he pulled onto her street a bright light from behind Ellen’s home cast a ragged shadow out into the street. He stopped in the middle of the pavement and got out.

  “What in the hell?”

  A bright glowing object hovered just above the back of her house. It was just over fifty feet across, fifteen or sixteen feet in height, and disc-shaped. The top rose up at a steeper angle than the outer edge of the object and appeared to have rectangular windows just under an almost flat top. The bottom extended below the angular edge in two rounded steps, or stages. The bottom of the saucer was also flat, but smaller in size than the top.

  Panic filled his chest as he raced to her front door. The saucer bolted into the night sky and was gone.

  “Ellen!” he screamed. “Ellen!”

  He pounded on her door with his fist.

  “Ellen! Can you hear me? Are you okay? Ellen! Answer me!”

  He pounded harder on her door then stopped to listen. Total silence answered him.

  “Ellen!” he screamed one more time.

  He stepped back and charged into the locked door with his shoulder. The door frame shattered as he flew into the vestibule.

  “Ellen! Where are you?”

  Again, nothing but silence. He rushed into her bedroom. She wasn’t there. He frantically searched every room, calling her name over and over. He pushed out into her tiny back yard and looked up at the sky.

  “Ellen!” he screamed up into the darkness.

  He stood there feeling drained, exhausted, breathing hard, and shaking.

  “Ellen,” he said quietly as he slumped to his knees, numb and disoriented.

  He barely noticed the red and blue flashing lights reflecting off the homes next door, or the flashlight beams from the police officers rushing up behind him. He was only partially aware of them placing his arms behind his back and cinching the handcuffs around his wrists.

  * * *

  “Where is she?” Detective Dickerson asked.

  Reality had returned. He was in an interrogation room at the local police station.

  “I told you. There was a UFO. They took her.”

  Dickerson leaned in closer. “What did you do with her body?”

  He sighed and lowered his head. “Nothing. I love her. We just got engaged. You can ask her parents.”

  “You forced your way into her house. You forced yourself on her. What did you do to her? Where is she?”

  Hollis shook his head. “I thought she was in danger. That’s why I forced her door open. But it was too late. She was already gone.”

  “In a UFO,” Dickerson said.

  Hollis nodded. “Yes.”

  Dickerson shook his head. “Well, at least the UFO angle is different. You have any idea how many guys I have to listen to who have beaten up or killed their girlfriends?”

  Hollis shook his head again. “It’s not like that.”

  “Then tell me exactly what it is like. I really want to know.”

  For the fourth time he went through the details of the whole nightmare with Detective Dickerson.

  * * *

  She stumbled up the side of an incline. It was freezing cold in the desert at night. She was without clothes and blood dripped from her nose. She was barely aware of the slow stream of red running down the inside of her legs. The broken rocks that comprised the incline cut painfully into her badly bruised feet.

  A car flashed by. A road?

  Her mind focused itself on the possibility of a road. Where there was one car, there could be more. Help was close—she could feel it. She collapsed at the edge of the road, scraping her knees and elbows in the process. Her breath came in a hard rhythmic pattern. The numbing cold seeped into her body and dulled her awareness. She thought she heard another car zoom by, but it could all be a dream. She didn’t really know. Images of strange, light grey creatures, like long-armed, long-fingered children with gigantic heads, swirled in her mind. Then there was the pain and terror that still throbbed in her chest.

  She forced her eyes open in the bright light in front of her. They were back. Wasn’t the horrible ordeal enough? Were they taking her again?

  “Ma’am, can you hear me?”

  She slowly raised her head. Off to the side was darkness, but ahead red and blue lights flashed.

  “Ma’am, I’m Corporal Jerome, California Highway Patrol. Can you tell me your name?”

  She looked up into his face. At least he looked human; that was a relief.

  “Your name, ma’am, can you tell me your name?”

  Her breath was calmer now. “Ellen.”

  “You have a last name, Ellen?”

  She took two deep breaths. “McKinnon. Ellen McKinnon.”

  “Ellen, I have an ambulance on its way. You’re okay.” He held her arm and gently pulled her up. “Can you stand?”

  She struggled as he cautiously helped her to her feet.

  * * *

  “You’re free to go,” Detective Dickerson said.

  Hollis looked up at him.

  “We checked with her parents and established a timeline. We excluded you as a suspect. You couldn’t have taken her to where she was found.”

  “You found her? Where? Is she okay?” Hope stirred in his heart.

  “She’s in the Desert Community Hospital, a hundred and twenty miles east of here. Highway Patrol found her out in the desert.” Dickerson gestured to the open door.

  “How is she?” He needed to know she was all right.

  Dickerson shrugged. “I don’t know. You can find out when you get there.”

  * * *

  The Desert Community Hospital was small, twenty-four beds and a single-bay emergency room. One doctor and three nurses were on duty when Hollis arrived at nine that morning.

  “She’s sedated,” the doctor said. “Physically I think she’s going to be okay.”

  “What about . . . ?” Hollis stood nervously, wondering how much he could bear to hear.

  “You have to understand . . .” The doctor reached out and lightly gripped his forearm. “She was totally delusional when she was brought in. She was screaming about little grey monsters that were hurting her and doing horrible things to her. Her mind is severely traumatized.”

  She may not be delusional, either, he thought. Not after what I saw.

  “She’s resting,” The doctor said. “You can sit with her for a while.”

  While Hollis sat the realization gradually sunk into his mind. The UFO probably would have put her back in her own house if the place hadn’t been overrun with cops. He had inadvertently caused them to drop her off in the middle of the desert.

  * * *

  Ellen stirred in her bed three hours later. Hollis reached out to her. She recoiled in a look of sheer terror.

  “Ellen, it’s okay, I’m here. You’re safe.”

  She didn’t seem to recognize him. As she moved quickly to get away from him the rolling table n
ext to her bed collided with the IV stand and her water pitcher crashed to the floor. A nurse rushed into the room.

  “Get away from me!” she screamed. “Leave me alone!”

  He started to stand. “Ellen, it’s me. It’s Howie.”

  “Don’t touch me! Get away!” she yelled, as she pulled farther away from him.

  The nurse injected something into her IV tube. In ten or fifteen seconds she started to relax.

  “It’s okay, Ellen. I’ll take care of you. You’re going to be fine.”

  “Sir, you need to leave—right now,” the nurse ordered.

  He turned and left the room. The doctor stood in the hallway, a grim expression on his face.

  “Doctor . . . ?” Hollis started.

  “Collins,” the doctor replied.

  “Is it just me?” Hollis asked.

  Dr. Collins shook his head. “Right now she only responds to one nurse. No one else can get close to her.”

  Hollis looked at the nurse, who bore a striking resemblance to a photo of Ellen’s mother he’d seen at her parent’s house. He pressed his lips together and nodded.

  “How long will it be before she recovers?” Hollis asked.

  Dr. Collins shook his head. “There’s no way to know. She may never recover completely. I hope she improves over the next several days. Then we might know more.”

  Hollis stayed in an old motel, but most of his time was spent waiting in the hospital. The small community adopted him, bringing him food, coffee, and tea. He didn’t feel hungry, so it took him almost three days to eat his way through a casserole an older woman had made for him. After a week a new doctor came to talk to him.

  “Ellen is not responding to treatment,” he said. “We can’t keep her here. You’ll need to find a long-term care facility for her. I’m so sorry.”

  Hollis breathed out slowly and nodded. “I’ll make the arrangements.”

  Chapter 1

  Present Time

  “Sir, we have one that fits your profile,” Colonel Maureen Willis said. The main control room at NORAD stirred to life with the new contact.

  “Show me what you’ve got, Mo,” Admiral Howard J. Hollis said.

  “Bogie now designated as Unknown Alpha Four is entering the upper atmosphere at sixteen thousand miles per hour over northern Mexico and is slowing as it drops in altitude. Likely target area is the Sangre De Christo mountain range in either northern New Mexico or southern Colorado.”

  Hollis glanced at the screen with the southwestern district map to see which base was closest. “Scramble two fully loaded F/A-18s out of Kirtland. I want them to stay low until we see where this thing is going to land.”

  “You’re wasting your time,” General Parks said. “The air force ignores those UFOs. Anytime we get close to them, they just zip away at unbelievable speeds. They’re not shooting at us, so we leave them alone.”

  Admiral Hollis turned to face him. “Just because they’re not shooting at you doesn’t mean they aren’t harming us. These things are taking our people—civilians—and ten thousand people a year are never seen again. This is a bigger threat to our country than all of the terrorism in the world combined.”

  General Parks scoffed. “You still can’t catch them.” He turned and wandered off.

  “He’s got a point,” Mo Willis said, glancing up at him.

  “That’s why I’m trying to catch them by surprise, on the ground,” Hollis replied.

  She nodded. “And just how many of them actually land?”

  “More than you might think.”

  “Okay,” she said. “Two Super Hornets heading north. For the time being they will keep a mountain ridge between them and Unknown Alpha Four. It’s your experiment.”

  Hollis nodded and studied the flight path of the Zeta Grey scout saucer. It slowed and changed course from north to northwest as it dropped off the radar screen. He knew where it was going. He had tracked three other landings to the same place over the last two months. There was something there that interested them. He just didn’t know what it was.

  “Here are the coordinates where the saucer will be. I want the two Super Hornets to come in with weapons hot. As soon as the saucer is spotted I want weapons locked on the target and missiles fired, followed by continuous cannon fire. Am I clear?”

  “Perfectly,” Mo answered.

  * * *

  Air Force Major Seth Adams and his wingman, Captain Jim Edwards, skimmed over the top of the mountain ridge in their F/A-18 Super Hornets and dipped into the top of the valley.

  “That looks like our target,” Edwards said.

  “Full thrust and afterburner,” Adams ordered.

  They streaked down the slope of the valley a hundred feet above the treetops. The silver saucer, about fifty feet across, sat on the ground in the distance.

  “Weapons lock engaged,” Edwards reported.

  “Fire all missiles.”

  Four high speed missiles from each fighter plane sliced through the air, targeting the UFO on the ground.

  “Fire guns,” Adams ordered.

  As the missiles closed in on the UFO, the saucer turned bright white, bolted from the ground, and fired a flash of white light at Adams’s fighter, then another at Edwards. The flash hit the nose of Adams’s fighter. Metal debris struck and cracked his windscreen, and the head-up display went dark. His fighter no longer responded to the flight controls and the firing of his guns ceased. The missiles curved up, trying to follow the saucer, but in the blink of his eye, the saucer had disappeared into the sky.

  “Edwards, you copy?”

  No answer.

  He looked over at Edwards, who was looking around in a panic. Radios aren’t working, he realized.

  When Edwards looked over at him, he gave the hand signal to eject. Adams grabbed the ejection lever and waited for Edwards to eject first. Edwards’s canopy blasted free and his ejection seat rocketed out of the fighter just above the trees.

  Major Adams pulled his ejection lever a second before his Super Hornet clipped the first tree. The force of the ejection drove him down into the seat as the wind blasted him from the front. This was the second time in his career he’d had to eject, so at least he knew what to expect. This would be a new experience for Edwards.

  He lost consciousness briefly as the ejection seat tumbled backward. The jolt of the parachute catching in the trees pulled him back into consciousness. Sharp pain stabbed into his right shoulder. He dangled about ten feet above the ground. He unhooked his harness, dropped to the ground below, and rolled to the side to break his fall.

  That’s when he felt the sharp pain in his right ankle. He slowly stood and put a little weight on his foot. It hurt badly, but seemed stable enough to walk on.

  He removed his helmet and looked around. Edwards, he thought. Where’s Edwards?

  He had ejected last, so Edwards must be higher uphill. He used his left hand to probe the painful area in his right shoulder. Dislocated, he realized. The collar bone also seemed to be broken. He hobbled uphill, in the direction he believed Edwards would have landed, slipping on the deep bed of tan pine needles as he went.

  Ten minutes later he saw Edwards still strapped into his ejection seat, which lay on its side. The parachute had caught in the pine trees, but ripped loose, allowing the seat to impact the ground. The only saving grace was the deep layer of pine needles. He removed Edwards’s helmet and checked for a pulse.

  Edwards was unconscious, but alive. Major Adams released the harness and pulled Edwards from the seat and onto the pine needles. He quickly checked for obvious broken bones. Not finding any, he assessed the situation.

  Both planes had gone down in a forested area. He picked up some needles in his gloved hand. The thick bed of pine needles was thoroughly dried out. He closed his eyes. Having grown up in southern California, he knew what would happen next. The sides of the valley were too steep to climb, especially dragging an unconscious man along. Up the center of the valley became the only option. The problem was that’s exactly where the fire from the crashed planes would be going.

  Adams grabbed hold of Edwards’s flight suit collar with his left hand and started pulling him up the hill. After four hundred yards of progress, he felt exhausted. He sat, breathing heavily, and looked around. The trees seemed a little thinner up and to the right. When he caught his breath, he stood and limped in that direction. The trees opened up on a rocky slope. He climbed up the rocks to get a better view.