Watch and Sally were both right. Not long after the sun left the sky, the stars started to come out. As the night deepened, the number of stars rose dramatically. Adam had never seen so many stars, nor had he ever really enjoyed the Milky Way before. The nebulous river of the galaxy stretched across the entire sky. Watch, who seemed to know a great deal about astronomy, pointed out the Northern Cross and told them about the blue-white star at the base of it.
“That’s Deneb,” he said. “It’s tens of thousands of times brighter than our sun. I think it’s the brightest star in the sky that we can see. It even has a red star that circles it, but you can’t see that with the naked eye.”
“But what about that one?” Sally asked, pointing straight overhead. “That one’s several times brighter.”
“That’s Vega,” Watch said. “It’s twenty-six light-years away. It’s also a lot brighter than our sun. But it’s no Deneb. Deneb is thousands of times farther away than Vega. If Deneb was only twenty-six light-years from here, it would outshine anything else in the sky.”
“How did you learn all these things?” Cindy asked, impressed.
Watch shrugged in the dark. They could hardly see one another. Each of them was just a black line drawn against the stars.
“I have a telescope at home,” Watch finally answered. “And I study books on astronomy at the library. Mr. Spiney has a few good ones.”
“Watch built his own telescope,” Sally said, with a trace of pride in her voice.
Because they were enjoying the stars so much and listening to Watch’s stories about the constellations, they hardly noticed the passage of time. Cindy had been soaking her foot for more than an hour when Adam suggested she try putting weight on it again. They helped her up, and gently she put it down. She started to tell them how it felt, but something remarkable interrupted her.
A strange light appeared in the sky.
“What the heck is that?” Sally gasped.
Straight overhead was a white light, much brighter than any star. At first it was just a point; they couldn’t tell its size. But as they watched, it grew brighter, and they all got the impression that it was going to land on them. Then it just stopped and hovered far above.
“Is it a plane?” Cindy whispered.
“A helicopter can hover,” Watch said. “Not a plane. But I don’t think it’s a helicopter. We’d be able to hear its rotor.”
“Could it be a balloon?” Adam asked.
“It’s not moving like a balloon,” Watch said. “It swept down and then just stopped.”
Sally chuckled uneasily. “Well, it’s not a flying saucer, is it?”
There was a moment of silence.
“That’s exactly what I think it is,” Watch said finally.
“We should get out of here,” Cindy said.
“I don’t know,” Adam said, getting excited. “I’ve always wanted to see a UFO. Do you think it will land, Watch?”
Watch shrugged. “This is Spooksville. Where else would an alien feel so at home on Earth?”
Perhaps the occupants aboard the strange ship heard Watch. For right then it descended once more, dropping like a glowing meteor out of a black abyss. They saw then that they were staring at two vessels, not one. The ships had been flying so close together that their lights had blurred. Adam’s excitement was blunted by fear. The lights changed from white glows to definite shapes. The objects were flying saucers, for sure, and they were coming down fast.
They clearly intended to land at the reservoir.
“Maybe we should go hide behind the rocks,” Adam said quickly. “At least at first.”
Watch considered for one second. “Good idea. Can you walk, Cindy?”
“I can hobble if you guys help me,” she replied, fear in her voice. The saucers were now only a quarter mile overhead. Their brilliant white glow radiated out over the surface of the reservoir, turning it into one huge silver mirror. For a moment they halted again, apparently searching for a place to set down. Unfortunately a decision was made swiftly.
The UFO’s were going to park near their bikes.
“Let’s carry her!” Adam shouted as they stumbled slowly toward the large rocks behind which they hoped to hide.
“Good idea!” Watch shouted back.
They didn’t even ask Cindy for permission. They just each grabbed a leg and yanked her up so that she was riding on their shoulders. Sally ran ahead of them, leaping from rock to rock. She was clearly visible; they all were. Behind them the saucers hovered no more than twenty feet above their bicycles. Incredibly, there was no noise, not even a faint hum.
“I hope they didn’t see us,” Adam gasped, as they carried Cindy around the largest boulder and set her down behind it. From above their heads, the glow stabbed past the edges of the rocks. Certain that Cindy was sitting comfortably, Adam, Sally, and Watch climbed back up the boulders to peer at the ships.
Both ships were landing beside the water, practically on top of their bicycles. One continued to glow brilliantly. The other must have turned off its engine or warp drive or whatever because it only gave off a feeble white glow, nothing more. Both ships were saucer shaped, circular, maybe thirty feet in diameter. Actually, they looked like saucers with cups placed upside-down on them. It didn’t take a genius to know they were not from planet Earth.
“What’s happening?” Cindy whispered, sitting below them.
“They’re unloading an antimatter bomb and preparing to blow up the planet,” Sally said.
“Quiet,” Adam cautioned. “They’re just sitting there. Nothing’s—Wait! I think I see a door opening.”
Adam was correct. On the ship that was no longer glowing brightly, a door of sorts was materializing. It was a peculiar opening. There had been no sign of it a few seconds ago. It was as if the walls of the ship had suddenly dissolved in a rectangular pattern. Yellow light shone out from inside. The door was not large; Adam would have had to stoop to enter the vessel.
“Do you see any aliens?” Adam asked.
“I’m the last person to ask,” Watch said. “I’m half blind.”
“I hope they’re not disgusting looking,” Sally whispered. “Even E.T. gave me nightmares.”
“You can’t think that way,” Watch said. “They have probably traveled millions of miles to get here. They have evolved from an entirely separate genetic tree. We will probably look horrible to them.”
“I think I look horrible to my own mother half the time,” Sally muttered.
“Shh,” Adam cautioned. “One of them is coming out.”