Maggie Peterson, professional Ex-Girlfriend

It had been a lousy night.
God, Men sucked! they sucked at romance, love, hell- if Maggie was going to be straight they sucked at sex to boot it all in the butt.
What had she been thinking?
Luke had been so promising. He was hot. He was going to college. He had a job. His family was from Indiana - so no chance of inbreeding?
Luke had been a colossal mistake. She could see what Billie Sue was going to say in the morning.
"I tol' you so."
Maggie hated Billie Sue at that moment. She gripped the steering wheel harder as she drove home.
The shame of getting dumped by Mr. Perfect was that it had to happen in front of a titty bar. What had she been thinking?
She was an idiot! That was it. There she was, thinking that Luke was all that and then here he comes flying out of Bambi's face first. Drunk as a skunk.
She had stood there looking at the guy she was supposed to be meeting in 4 minutes at Frank's Grill for a late night moonlit meal and a trist in the nearby lake. She was a big fat idiot. Luke was a fake.
He had flunked out of college- about a week ago- she found out as she had picked the gravel out of his stained shirt. Hell, apparently Luke had been lucky to get into that Junior college after the State University had given him the boot. But hell with them he still had her - he had drunkenly slurped up in hopes she would kiss him there on the park bench by the bus stop.
Maggie resisted the urge to hammer her head on the steering wheel at that moment.

His "job" was washing headlights at a dealership which he had just lost since he had kicked in an annoying customer's headlamps-right before he had said fuck it all and gone to the titty bar- which he apparently was a regular at and had run up a tab and would she pay it so he could go back there tomorrow since Shalance (or some shitty dog-name ) could dance for him.

Maggie the doormat!

If this loser wasn't inbred he must have been adopted.

Then Shalance had showed up and bitch-slapped her to the ground!

Shalance was a tall and very pissed off Black woman with huge breasts that barely fit into that tee shirt that Maggie had given Luke for his birthday.

Then that asshole had slung his arm around that whore and strutted off in direction of his car. Well-his new car, a junky car that looked like it had seen it's best days before 1944. The old one had been a Mustang convertible. Probably repossessed.

She wouldn't cry. She wouldn't! It wasn't the end of the world, Maybe if the asshole got hit by a meteor then things could get better. Yeah, she like that idea- a big burning chunk of three nude guys standing beside the road. WTF!

Then she was swerving around struggling to keep her Geo on the road and not flip it.

What in the hell were three guys doing out here with no clothes in the middle of the night?

No wait she didn't want to know.

She didn't.

Did she?

She looked back down the road where the three men stood looking at her.

Oh crap.

she did.

Mars and Roads

There is something about  a road. For  one thing, they are one  of the oldest creations of Mankind. In the beginning of things  it was little more  than a line imaginary for the most part in  the minds of those who walked  upon it. It was preceded by paths and similar  concepts of routes from one point to  another that people could use. By the time a "road" was  introduced the paths were well worn but the idea of the road caught on fast and has remained  in our  collective minds since.
Mars knew that this was such a line, although he did  not know what traveled  on it yet. He instinctively knew that the road was his future and that wherever he had originated from- he had gotten here (wherever that was) by a version of this non-natural thing that  lay  before him. Back there (wherever  there was-if it still was) he had walked those routes. Walked was  synonymous with Walker in his mind. He knew he had not "walked" like he was now but he did know  he had moved upon lines like this  one back where  he had come  from. He  stared down at the first thing he had recognized  since finding himself here. If only the Trace would come back and speak to him. (was it speaking that the Trace did?).
He stared at the black asphalt for a time as the  other two came to stand on either side of them. Together the two others stared down at it. Mars had crouched down awkwardly longing for something he could quite place or find  on his body  to give him the balance he needed. After a moment, he  reached out one appendage and touched the asphalt. The feeling  made his muscles jump as the sensation sent  its signals  to his brain  and  he processed the warmth of it and softness of  the matter under his  appendages. The result was something foreign to him and he found that he liked touching  the matter so he did not move for a long time.
No he did not know what this liking was but he could deal  with it better than he had expected.
The lights appeared down  the road floating out of the night. Fijbold made to step  forward onto  the road. Something he could  not explain made him stand up and use the other appendage to stop Fijbold's  movement. Fijbold sputtered but came to a stop. He glared over at Mars as the lights became clearer.
So, other things travel on the road, Mars thought.

On death and other impossiblilites

Mars walked through the alien landscape, his mind (whatever that was) trying to call out for the trace and not getting much. His mind raced through the possibilities of where he was, how would he survive it once he grasped what this was. Everything was different save that he was on a planet and that it sustained existences and a myriad of other things that his mind was quickly assimilating and absorbing.
The other two following him at a distance Fijbold kept crouching down expecting to find what- legs (mandibles) to run on. He would constantly stumble into Kymat.

"Walker." Kymat said suddenly.

Mars stopped and turned back to face Kymat.

"Walker, you must end me." Kymat said.

"I cannot."  Mars said and knew it to be true.

"Walker." Kymat said, pleading. "Kill me."

Kill? Now there was a word that Mars recognized. He was the walker, the one whose designation had been to end many.

"I cannot." he repeated and turned away.

Kymat screamed in frustration and flung himself towards Mars, as he was about to collide with Mars, his own body rebelled against him and he missed more by the sudden spasmic shudder that sent him sprawling in the grasses.

"The exile won't allow me to end any of you." Mars said then continued walking towards the road.

Meanwhile

"So  what you are saying is that the Alien Signal intersected with the Earth someplace  in the middle of Tennessee for 3 minutes, 20  seconds and  then ceased transmission?'

"Yes."

"What happened to it?"

"Let me explain  it like this General." She said, blowing air up her face moving a lock of hair slightly. "What happens when you turn off your cell  phone?"

"I dunno, I guess it stops sending a signal." The voice responded out of  the handset.

She rolled her eyes. "The scientific explanation is much the same.'

"I don't like it." The General growled.

You never do, she thought reflecting back to the last phone call about 4 years ago. God, that  was awful- it went on and on with her saying- No General I don't know what the Fuck just happened and would  you please mind your language?

Instead she said: "Where ever that signal came from, we have with Dr. Williams' help, determined that it was a pretty much straight shot to us from somewhere outside  the Galaxy."

"Pretty Much?"

"Well there was a curve however very slight."

"Do you know where it came from?"

"No, General we still don't."

"Well  keep looking.  In the meantime I have dispatched a helo to go check out the landing site."

Landing site? Was he for real?

"Ok, thanks."

"Oh don't  worry your pretty little head Susan- we'll be  in touch." The General hung  up.

You write one lousy paper about extraterrestrial signals and the next  thing  you  know you  have a cushy government job where there are people intent on you not finding anything  and  not acknowledging it when  you do.

Things to do Outside Crossville with three Naked Men in the Dark.

It occurred to Floyd that he might be in danger when he remembered that he was at least 20  miles from home in the middle of a  field with 3 nekid men. What would  the guys down at the plant say? That Floyd had gone gay. He glanced at the two remaining men for a sec then ran for the remains of his truck. He spotted his shotgun sticking out from behind the seat.  He grabbed it and swung it around in time to bring it to bear on the long haired one.
"Jesus Christ Gawd Alrighty!" He said and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened except that his gun made a clacking noise.
He didn't leave it loaded. Aw shit. He thought. The long haired man grabbed the barrel and ripped it from his grasp.
"Give that back." he yelled  making a grab for it. The  long haired  man swung it wide and straight across Floyd's brow. Sharp  pain followed that as Floyd went straight back into the cab of his truck in a  heap of blood and bashed in nose cartilage.
Kymat considered the thing the human had pointed at him. His mind whispered danger to him. It was long and harder than his own body. It appeared to be made of several materials. He would have been shocked but his mind was assimilating the change faster than the others. At that he glanced back at Fijbold who was still crawling around making garbling noises. Kymat wondered how long it would take Fijbold to acclimate to the lack of appendages and the fact that he only had a limited number of senses to translate the environment to his brain.
The weapon? That must be what it was, since it seemed that even here on the other side of the... universe- that would be the word now some things never changed. What would war be like here? Would he be a victim or participant. Weapons were for the weak, Kymat's (People?) did not use weapons that were not a part of the (body). Kymat knew without looking that this feature of his (people) would be no more a tactic for him. He would miss the (Plasmoids); what's more he doubted that he could do anything about it. He looked down at the weapon in his hand- it was heavy and awkward. he discarded it by dropping it where he stood.

Oh yeah, I was coming to that

What to ask?

"Will I know what to do to survive?"

The sphere was silent for a time.

"Your new form- this body which is locally called a human will have needs that will present itself to you. Much of what you require will become immediately apparent as will the procedures to achieve the desired actions. First, you will need to ingest energy in the form of "eating" this will require you to find edible substances that you can put into the orfice from which you are communicating - that sound you hear is the words that you are making with the orifice which is called the mouth. It is a multi-functional unit that will take in liquid and semi solid nourishments that will require compaction and pulverization by the mouth before forcing the matter into your body where other organs will convert it into the required energy."

"I Gr-" No there wasn't a word yet for what he wanted to say.

"The mouth can also permit speech which will require a substance that surrounds you- a gas that makes your body unit function- this is called breath or air. you must suck it in through your mouth or the two orifices above it on the pointed unit. That is called the nose- it serves as a back up unit for breathing. To speak, suck in the gas then force it back out. When you speak it will come naturally since it has been biologically programmed into you.."

"Yes."

"The nourishment will only partially convert to energy, there will be leftover matter that your body will reject like excess fuel. This will exit your lower orifices. The waste energy/nourishment will be unpleasant and there should be a physical constriction of the units before expulsion occurs."

"I see (what an odd word)."

"At certain times your body will require rest- either by stopping movement or by shutting down primary functions and entering a recharging state of low consciousness that is commonly referred to as sleep."

"Sleep."

"A state that is quite vulnerable."

"What else?"

"There are other functions and units some units will perform many functions while others will perform one. As long as you breath, take in nourishment, dump excess matter and sleep- you will survive in your exile. The rest you will need to learn if you wish to do better than just survive."

"That's all that is required?"

"Yes, Exile Tyrins. Remember to breath more than the others and you will do fine."

"Fine?"

"you have no time left- please remove your bodies to a safe distance of 15 feet now."

The sphere began to pulse like a strobe light.

Mars turned and moved his limbs awkwardly then stumbled forward into a run leaving the others. Kymat staggered as awkwardly behind him trying to get the limbs he was now on too move, Fijbold crawled after them on all fours. Mars stopped to look back at what he was suddenly sure was the required distance. The sphere was pulsing so bright that is was shinning in the darkness like a star and then it flashed and was no more. Actually most of the area that surrounded the sphere was no more. All that remained was a smooth spherical crater about 3 meters deep and half of something that looked quite out of place with everything else.

"My truck!" Floyd yelled looking at where the explosion had vaporized most of the truck bed and part of the cab. All that remained was the steering wheel, windshield and crumpled front end snug against the oak.
Floyd had no memory of how he had gotten to the other side of the field from his truck. He knew three or four things though.
1. For some reason everything seemed pretty flat like the world had gotten squashed somehow. There as a fuzziness to all the edges of everything. He could see his truck but for the life of him- it was hard to separate it from the tree and the field.
2. He was standing next to three very nekid guys who looked a bit like his brothers. He was still pretty sure he had driven up here by hisself anyway. Oh crap, were these guys those gay people that his buddies were always talking about?
3. He glanced down and noted that while he had clothes still on there didn't seem to be any color to them anymore. they looked kind of white in the darkness.
4. He needed another beer, he really needed a beer.

Kymat looked at this human and didn't like him. Fijbold sucked in this human's scent and vomited up some strange looking substance all over Floyd's work boots. The other one, the ball thing called it Mars looked at him then turned and walked away into the night towards the road.

Floyd wanted that beer as bad as he had ever wanted one.

Technicalities

"Where is the Trace?"
The Sphere did not answer

Mars cast about turning his  head this way and that. Taking  in the sky as the Sphere  had called it, the smally soft stuff  they all knelt in. Kymat Geyrson and Fijbold Terakyshad been exiled here- whereever here was. There would be no going back- no way  to even  know where "there" was since they would have no  idea where "here" was. They  may not even be in the same Galaxy  - an odd word almost enough to make  him stop and  consider the limitations that his mind put to the term. This language (whatever that was) indicated that  whereever "here" was-  it was far less advanced/aware/understanding/comprehending- there was no word that felt right then from where he and the others  had come from. He would have to remember what the Trace  had told  him to do, accept whatever happened as  the new being- the new reality that surrounded him.
Fijbold was  not having the same amount of luck.  He was making a strange  noise and his face was wet with a  liquid substance coming from- Mars peered at the man- yes coming out of the strange twin orifices on his- face (that was  the word). Fijbold did not look (happy) - would this being different get better/improve/right/evolve/adapt?

"There is no Trace here,  Exile Mars." the Sphere finally answered. "Soon even this unit will cease  to function.  If you have questions- you must  ask in the  next five Parsecs/minutes or it will be to late and you  will need  to leave or suffer injury."

Rebirth

For Floyd the world was no more since it had no more meaning then there was only blindness and pain. He floated in the new found darkness waiting for death while all around him the opposite was happening. In each of the light clusters 3 beings took forms similar to that of the bipedal human that lay in the burnt grass. As each being formed they grew to look like Floyd but then some things changed, variations due to some inexpiable phenomena that changed each form during the transformation and the beings developed marked differences from the crying man a midst them.
The one to the north of Floyd grew the same black hair out of the newly formed head but instead of coming up lank and straight and black like Floyds'- this one's hair turned an off shade of brown and continued to grow until it fell past its shoulders and down the newly formed back.
The being to the south of Floyd grew broad shoulders like its apparent model then shrunk back into those of a smaller thinner man. whose hair was blond almost platinum. The skin went from white to a dark shade of beige before settling into a deep tan almost olive in complexion.
The last being that crouch low almost fetal in position became broader than Floyd as the skin flowed over the newly formed musculature.  The skin was whiter than his other 2 companions but still not as pale as that of the struggling human in their midst.
Time passed and each of the beings now all crouching in a circle around the semi-conscious Floyd like pagans at a sacrifice. Each of the new men were completely naked. They did not move or even breath as if they did not know how. One of them sprang to his feet and promptly fell over backwards as his chest expanded and collapsed in spasms. He continued to jerk around spasmodically until he suddenly stopped and began to breath through his nose.His eyes were wide and colorless as they examined his surroundings until finally settling on the ceramic sphere that floated in the air about 4 feet above the now inert form of the human.
The thin man made garbling noises and waved around his arms at it then stopped suddenly to examine his arms. A moment passed and then the thin man was grabbing at his chest as if trying to locate something he just realized he no longer possessed. After a moment he spotted his penis and sat up so he could peer down at it.
He remained in this strange position of study- all the while taking short fast breaths.

Mars Tiryns looked up from where he crouched in his new form to consider his fellow exiles. His mind raced so fast he was sure that whatever a mind was would burn out like a.... No there was no word for it nor would any image come to this thing called a mind. He knew that the Trace would explain it all to him in a moment. This was why he continued to wait, surely the Trace would come back and explain it to him- it had always been there with him. He considered why he kept referring to himself as "He-him," but nothing formed in his mind to make him understand what was happening. The trace had warned him that the exile would change everything, he (that reference again) had no idea how far from all that he known that would mean. The logic stopped his wondering as he knew that without the Trace, he might go insane like- Mars looked at the thin man who looked down at himself and wondered which one he was.
Mars turned- his head? Yes that seemed to be the right word (word? what is word?). Stop it, he thought and before the distraction rose up he repeated the last communication he had with the Trace. "Accept whatever happens, whatever you perceive or understand or however you process the new inputs to your- (again there seemed to be no word to describe it) This was so foreign to him. With the Trace, he had always known how to understand, what to perceive, what action to take. Now it seemed he was all alone on this foreign world.
Well not completely alone, there were Kymat Geyrson and Fijbold Terakys here with him. Mars felt his head move- no this was something more local- his face- his "face"- moved into something he felt comfortable with.
Kymat probably was the "thin" man (another word that seemed correct). Kymat had 4 appendages back home.
At the thought of home, Mars sat back and looked up into the- the- the?
"Sky, Exile Tiryns. On this world in this perception it is called the sky."

Mars looked over at the Sphere.
He looked at it a long time before he realized his mouth was moving and a rumble and cacophony of "noise" was coming out from it.
"One second, Exile Tiryns. Making corrections for language and speech." The sphere communicated.

"Where are the rest of my arms!" Kymat screamed in horror and revulsion.

Scientific Interludes are not romantic outtakes

I know that there may be a few scientists who were surfing out there for some astronomical soft core porn and saw slipgate and thought- finally a nerd who knows how to misrepresent!
But
it's not.
And I know there are going to be some Hard Science Fiction readers who are going to scoff at what they will describe as not scientifically correct usages and so on.
Let me say this.
I am trying.
For those uninitiated readers who are wondering what I am babbling about. It's Arthur C. Clarke vs. the State of George Lucas. Hard vs. Soft/fantasy Sci-Fi.
I think of myself in the middle. I know enough and keep up with enough science to be dangerous or as Douglas Adams would reference me, "Mostly Harmless except on Sundays."
I like scientific speculation and thus what this story is going to propose is complete scientific speculation.

So like that guy from Dragnet would say to me at this point here are the facts so far in the Slipgate Exiles Storyline (as we humans know them).

• Approxiamately 4 weeks ago, a listening station at the University of Berkley (CA) picked up a radio report like the ones that are picked up from Pulsars and similar phenomena out there in the Universe.
• The reason they found a radio frequency is because that is what they were looking with. The Ripple is my own description of a sub-space (string theory- Catherine Asaro hypothesis) that I am using here to describe as a long range form of transportation from another place in the Universe. All that you need to know right now is that it is alien and by alien I am aiming for utterly alien.
• Utterly alien will be clearer shortly as I open the real story unto you who have decided I am sad quack and gone back to reading "Scientific American, Harper's Weakly, and The New Science Times (which is really just old Science newly reprinted).
• Again, like Clarke in Rama was doing I am approaching this as what we humans would see when faced with alien technology and capabilities that we don't currently have the science or knowledge or language to accurately describe.
• So if you haven't passed out from boredom then Read ON MacDuff!

The Strange things about Certain Phenomena

22:30 hours, 36.01573,-84.932492

270 feet west of 3132 Peavine Firetower Rd

Outside Crossville, Tennessee

Floyd would later say that he should have gone fishing rather than trudge out into this clearing near the Cartoosa Woods. He would have liked to have said later that he had no idea what had driven him to take his truck out into this field but here he was sitting under a tree looking over the wreckage of his dilapidated 1986 Ford Ranger watching the steam spill out from under the bent hood.
Floyd looked up at the tree and wondered not for the first time in his life, why he had thrown it all away on the likes of Betty Sue Granger. That woman was a no good hussy and sleep-around- well dammit the words did fail him again. Yes he was good and pissed, the buzz from the beers were wearing pretty thin. He got out of his wrecked vehicle and thought idly if he had left his cell phone in the truck when the sudden urge to pass water drove all other concerns from his mind. He stumbled out into the grass and relieved himself of that six pack.
Midstream his cell phone started ringing. He fumbled around, almost caught himself in his zipper and dropped the cell phone that felt like it had burnt up to a hot coal.
As he cussed, looking around in the long grasses the Cingular Harp ring tone went from urgent to shriek and then with a squawk sparked and died in a plume of smoke just as he located it. Floyd stared at the ruin of his cell phone and wondered if they were supposed to do that.He wasn't quite sure and stood there pondering it until he blinked as everything about 4 feet in every direction suddenly blossomed into light.
Fuck, I is being abducted by them aliens like in the movies. Too late he remembered his shotgun was locked in the truck not twenty feet behind him. Too late did he think that looking up into the light might not be a good idea.
He went almost two thirds blind as he looked directly into the hellstorm of what a professor and his team had just called "The Ripple Wave." The corneas of his eyes partially melted as he screamed into the wavelength that only partly struck him as the Signal found purchase on this rock the locals call Earth.
Floyd was lucky, since he immediately passed out. In some ways he was more fortunate not to have had much intelligence or use of his brain- he wouldn't be missing it much for the rest of his life.

The wave flashed into the grasses burning a polyhedron shadow into the dirt below the vegetation. Static electricity began to concentrate until there were barely visible lines forming the dodecahedron approximately 1-2 inches above the curve of the slope that formed the ground below it. The geometric energy field punched out into a sizable shape filling the space near Floyd's inert body covering a distance of 14 meters in diameter.
Inside the energy field formed 4 bright clusters of flashing lights - like a thousand lightning bugs swirling around the others until three of these clusters took on the form similar to the unconscious man below them. The fourth cluster pulsed until it became single sequence of light then faded out of the visual spectrum. The dodecahedron fizzled into wisps of smoke as the wave faded back into the ripple that had been detected earlier and everything about its connection with the Earth lost integrity and became little more than a much diluted radio signal.

Ouch as only NASA can say it.

Williams felt a migraine coming on.

"What happened?" He heard himself ask.

"Professor, what NASA needs right now is your preliminary data and any trajectory information-"

He knew he should be elated, it was usually an act of Congress to get these guys to even talk to you.

"What happened?" He tried again.

"Look Professor, we really need to focus on everything that happened before the incident."

The Incident? That was rich, he wondered if that would be what they would call it later. Getting them to talk promised that they might listen but did not guarantee it.

"What happened!" he yelled suddenly.

There was silence on the line long enough, that Williams was sure that he had just blown it.

"Well, NASA has made no official declaration or report as yet."

Unbelievable.

"There was an incident."

That might be the sum total of what he would get.

"An incident?" he asked. "My sensors just went atomic."

Another uncomfortable silence followed.

"Well- we are not actually sure we know what exactly occurred up there."

"I am listening." Williams said. I am all ears you government freak.

He actually was sure he was hearing paper shuffling.

"The phenomena intersected communication satellite 314A Telecom 6 and it- well it exploded." He heard the man gulped "That was what Major Crispin reported from the International Space Station about 10 minutes ago."

"Exploded." Williams said.

"There detritus is spread out about 500 miles in most directions yes."

"Wow."

"Now could we get your data please?" the man asked almost pleading.

"Yes- I will have my lab assistant send it over via secure communication.

"Professor?" It was Mick.

"Yes Mick?"

"The ripple-wave just made planetfall."

Whoopsy on a Astronomical Level

"Uhm- Professor?"
Williams was enjoying the moment- no he was savoring it. Wait was that someone talking to him? He looked down at Mick. Mick was pointing a the screen where a window had flashed into view. He had seen the window only once before when Mick had been showing it off to that little red-headed intern- what's her name- wait why it is the window flashing?
"It's flashing because the trajectory of the ripple is collide with a orbital object."
"What? what do you mean collide?" Williams leaned in to peer at the numbers in the box. Trajectory Widget- that's what his resident Mac Geek had called it. It was some kind of mini-program that was somehow attached to one of the Radio Telescopes in New Mexico that was slaved over to tracking all incoming object.
"That's no ripple."  Fred said. "The intensity of the signal just hit solid radio wave frequency!"
The three of them watched the numbers, their minds collectively translating the geometries into their own images of what must be happening up there in space. The ripple breaking through the sub-space field and slicing through the fabric of space and...

Williams gave himself a shake. There would be no visuals- this wasn't Star Trek, these signals had no visual evidence for the naked eye to track. Signals bounced all over the void and were never seen. The guys in the Space Station would not be looking out view ports- they would be staring at their instruments, talking to NASA and praying the collision was with a satellite other than anything they would need to repair or replace.

"Whoa." Fred and Mick said together. The Trajectory Widget beeped out a message- "Collision Imminent" and the numbers went crazy and then the noise filled all of the sensors and the Mac computer froze up as data overloaded the processors.
"Dammit." Mick said and reached around the back of the Mac to pull out the power cable on the tower and then reconnect it. Fred pushed the power button.
"Reboot." Mick said as a way of apology to Williams.

The two assistants spent the next five minutes in nervous silence as Williams paced around wondering what had just happened. Finally, the Mac was back up and reconnected to the Telescopes and the Sensors. Something had happened, there was a lot of noise now in the lower atmosphere where the Ripple had been. Where was it now?

The phone rang. Williams bit his thumb.

Fred answered it.

"Hello? This is Fred Smithson. What security clearance? Oh wait, I will get him."
Fred looked at Williams who dropped his thumb and walked over to the phone. Fred handed it to him and mouthed something like "it's the Feds."

Williams put the phone to his ear.
"This is Williams."

"Hey Bill, this is Gary Newman- do you remember me?" a familiar voice said.

"Yes  I remember you." Williams answered coldly.

"Well, Let me start by apologizing on behalf of NASA..."

What do you mean Earth?

Williams took off his glasses and pinched the spot between them.
The  ripple was increasing in frequency as it had made it's  way from out beyond the solar system down here to the Earth apparently. Something had emitted it over 6 days ago or at  least that is when their radio telescope had discovered the signal. Who knows how long it had  been coming  to them- could be  thousands of years in the coming from wherever the signal/ripple had originated. The whole thing hurt his brain.
They had, of  course, pointed this fluctuation out  to the University and NASA but most everyone had  scoffed at the very  idea  that a signal radio or otherwise could be coming to Earth. What were  the odds anyway  they  had said.
"A Quadrillion  to 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001," Williams had replied.

The  University Head,, a Professor  Maximilian Glick had been silent for a long time. Williams eventually realized the scratching  noises in the  background must be Glick doing the math. Williams had waited in dread- since he had  just spoke out of hand not meaning to be serious or exact.
Glick had come back with a number combination that far exceeded what Williams had said and then criticized Williams  for not being exact when quoting the odds. Williams had apologized and hung  up.
The Guys at NASA  had said it was probably a bad report from the  Hubble and not to  worry they had people checking on it at that moment. Williams thought he had heard laughter in the background.
"Prof?" Mick said, his voice rising in pitch
"What now?" Williams said wishing the ripple would  go away.
"The ripple has increased in frequency like a million times ten!"
Williams opened his eyes and stared at the numbers. Sure enough what  had been decimals in the .0000001 range  where increasing at  a .00001  per second as the ripples strength  increased.

The ripple had ceased. Now  is was a full  on wave.

Let's see the boys down at NASA explain this one.

An Arrival of Sorts

"There is is again, Professor."

"What do you mean "there" Fred?" Professor Williams said as he looked up from the console where he was searching through the dark matter between Jupiter and Saturn for what his team had taken to calling a ripple.

"It's the ripple again Doc." This voice belongs to Mick the Research Assistant that has been posted here with Williams for the longest time. "I am sure of it."

Williams got up and crossed the small office to look over the 2 young men's shoulders as they crowd the Mac monitor staring at what is to the untrained eye, an program with radio charts and lots of numbers. No spectacular shot of the deepness of space nor the dynamic juxtaposition of planets conveniently overlapping for easy reference. No just the broad expanses of filtered void in which to track what only appears as a slight fluctuation of numbers on their screens.
Still it beats being out there are seeing what?
Nothing big no vast stretches of nothing - all that space between planets and other denizens of the known universe. Sci-Fi had ruined most people on the realities of the immensity of space needing to confine space down to a manageable and imaginable expanse for space ships and combat when in truth no one would see anything unless they knew exactly where to look. Such is space, off .00000000000000001 degrees and you could miss just about everything. In many ways this was an alien concept to most humans.
The Irony of it all, Williams thought as he peered down at the numbers.

":Do we have a trajectory of this ripple." Williams asked.

Mick leaned back obviously satisfied with himself and pointed at the mathematical algorithms and equations.

"As far as the other sightings are concerned it seems to be tracing a line from somewhere out Alpha Centauri way down to us."

"Us?"

"Earth."

Welcome to the Slipgate!

You are entering the Slipgate Exile.

This blog was created by Me (yep I Know Mr. Excitement) So I could further Explore a storyline that I originnally started writing as a screenplay with hope of having a truly or at least mostly alien being end up on earth - an exile from another galaxy where an eternal war rages. Imagine my surprise when I found a TV series that had almost an identical plot!
Never being too deterred I have become determined to write this one through and see where it takes me. I will be importing and rewriting what I have already posted but first a beginning.