Stargazers

Prologue

     They had been driving for days, stopping only to refuel or sleep. His father had been hired to start a new job, and they really needed the money. Whenever the old man lost his job, his young son knew they had to travel. Sometimes they had to travel quite a distance in order to find something new. While the young teenager didn't like the idea of moving and changing schools again, there was no point staying if they were broke, and even homeless. They both knew and understood that was how things were, so the young man chose to be strong and adapt. The old man never said anything, but his son could tell that his Dad appreciated his current maturity. There was just no point fighting change, you just had to go with the flow.

     Yet part of the young man really enjoyed it; hitting the road whenever the time came. He liked the one on one time with Dad and the fresh starts. It told him a lot about his character, and definitely his old man's. The boy knew that his father was frustrated over losing his job, but there was no point fighting something you can't control. Pack up and move on. So, there they were, crossing the Nevada desert on their way to the next state and the next job. According to their GPS this was the last stop for a while, so not only did his dad plan to fill up his tank but also fill up a few gas jugs in case they needed more. As he was filling up the tank, he looked at his son sitting shotgun.

     "You might want to hit the can and empty your tank," the old man suggested.

     The young boy went inside and got the key from the kid working the gas station and wandered out back to the bathroom door located outside. He didn't need to do much, using the urinal and not touching a thing as he quickly relieved himself. As he was walking out back to the car, his old man was walking to him.

     "Pass them over," his old man called out.

     The boy passed them over and never stopped as he continued walking back out to their vehicle. He even cleaned the windshield and the headlights while he waited, because he could tell by the look on his father's face that he was taking a dump so he would be at least a few minutes.

     That's when the ground started to shake, the rumbling being loud but far off at the same time. The scared teen dropped the squishy he was cleaning the windows with and looked around to see where the source of the shaking was. He couldn't see anything and believed it was an earthquake for a few seconds, but then he saw something massive in the distance. There was a vessel that was about the size of an aircraft carrier. It was at least a hundred miles away from the gas station, but the kid watched in stunned silence as the large vessel slowly lifted up off the ground and kept moving up. The young man watched in awe as the ship lifted right into the clouds of the overcast day and simply vanished. The massive spacecraft didn't even leave a chemtrail and was gone about as quickly as it was spotted. By the time the kid's father emerged from the gas station, the young man was beside himself, waving his arms about as he tried to explain it to the old man.

     "Dad, did you see that!" the boy cried, "It was amazing!"

     "See what?" his father said, "The earthquake? It was barely a three."

     "It wasn't an earthquake!" the boy called out.

     "It wasn't?" The old man said, slightly confused. "What was it then?"

     "There was this big spaceship!" the boy told him. "It was the size of a cruise liner, or an aircraft carrier! It was massive!"

     "A spaceship?" the old man said, confused. "You mean like a UFO?"

     "I don't think so," the boy replied, "It looks like it was ours."

     "You mean the Navy?" the old man said, sighing. "I sure hope not. There are better things to spend our tax dollars on than a space ship."

     "I'm not making this up!" the boy said, pointing to the clouds. "The shaking was from it lifting off the ground and flying up into the clouds."

     "A flying aircraft carrier?" The old man said, also looking up. "Where did it go?"

     "I don't know." The boy answered, "But that's what I saw."

     "Sure you did," the old man said, "Get back in the car. We have to get back on the road."

     The young man never said anything to his father for the rest of the day, and he never spoke to his father about the spacecraft he saw that day ever again. He knew the old man didn't believe him, but there was no way he was the only who saw it that morning. Unfortunately, days later that was the last thing on anyone's mind. The boy and his father had barely been in their new town a few days when the President of the United States made his historic address. For the next several weeks, he never thought about that space ship, unaware that it was connected to the impending event that would change the world and another world forever.