Diamond Rain

I’m at the helm of my newly acquired spaceship checking my Facebook notifications when I see a post by NASA that says it rains diamonds on Neptune. I call up my friend Joey and tell him, “Go into your backyard.”

“What’s going on man?” Joey asks as he steps out his back door onto the sunlit patio.

“I’ll explain everything soon,” I reply as I adjust the ship’s teleporter.

“He’s right there,” I say to the ship’s computer, “Bring him up.” The image projected in the front of the cockpit clearly displays Joey standing in his backyard.

The next second he appears in the control room of the alien craft. “What the #&(% just happened!?” Joey says after he materializes.

“I brought you onboard, I need your help to harvest the diamond rain on Neptune.” I reply.

“Shouldn’t we come up with a plan before we fly half way across the solar system? How do we know there are even diamonds raining on Neptune? Isn’t that planet a gas giant? This doesn’t make any sense. And by the way, how the hell did you get a spaceship?!” 

“There will be time to explain everything on the way there. Honestly, this ship is so fast we’ll probably be back in time for school Monday. Is there anyone else you want to bring along with on the adventure?” I ask, “This trip is going to be dangerous, but if we can fill the cargo hold of this ship with Neptunian rain diamonds, we’ll be the richest people in history!”

“Well we should bring someone who knows a lot about space, and someone who knows a lot about smuggling” Joey says scratching his chin pensively, “What about Tiffany and Meredith?” They would be valuable assets to this odyssey.”

“Computer, you heard the man, locate Tiffany and Meredith.” I turn to Joey “Are you prepared to be the richest men of all time?” The computer silently goes to work, scanning the planet for our chosen companions. Joey starts to chuckle as he watches the computer locate the girls and plot a course to their locations. Minutes later, they materialize on the deck of the ship just as Joey did moments before. They are equally shocked and disoriented by the experience, but quickly calm down when they see Joey and me standing at the helm of the ship.

“This ship is amazing Bud, where on Earth did you find it?” Meredith asks as she begins to explore the cockpit of the ship curiously, “This looks like Gray technology”

“Are you going to tell us why we’re inside of an alien ship dude?” Tiffany asks. She turns to Meredith, “What’s a Gray?”

“They’re the skinny aliens with big bald heads and big black eyes. They abduct people to use in breeding experiments because they lost the ability to reproduce naturally.” She pauses, “Until right now I thought it was all just a bunch of nonsense.”

“Well it’s not, they’re real, and I killed my way through about eighty of them taking over this ship. I have no idea how many are still hiding in the lower levels, but I’m sure we won’t be bored on our way to Neptune.” I say. 

“We’re going to Neptune?!” The girls both squeal. Meredith looks excited, Tiffany looks nervous.

“Why would we go there?” Tiffany asks.

“It rains diamonds.” Joey replies.

Now Tiffany looks excited, “Oh my god! Diamonds are so hot right now, we’re gonna be rich!!” She hops up and down flapping her hands in the air. 

I nod to her and turn to Joey and say “Alright, let’s get to work! Computer, set a course for Neptune. Joey, let’s go take care of the remaining aliens. We can’t risk them interfering with our trip to Neptune.” 

The computer responds in a foreign dialect, “Course set for Neptune. Approximate distance: 4.49 billion kilometers. ETA: 49 minutes. Prepare yourselves for hyperdrive.” The light of the stars starts to stretch and distort as the hyperdrive engages, stretching the space between Neptune and Earth like a spring. A slight tremor rolls through the ship as it blasts forward. Within seconds the ship is speeding towards Neptune faster than the speed of light.  It takes a moment to adjust to the dizzying feeling of moving so fast.

I turn and look to the girls, “Stay here and make sure the computer stays on course. We should arrive within an hour if the ship can maintain hyperdrive.  Call us if you need anything.” 

“Joey, we have to clear the rest of the aliens out of the ship as soon as possible. We can use their weapons against them,” I say as I lead him to the bridge. As we enter the cosmic bridge of the ship we see the security screens displaying the other areas of the ship.

“Are those the Grays?” Joey says pointing towards one of the security screens. 

“I’m not sure, they look similar to the ones I fought when I captured the ship, but there’s something different about those,” I say. They remind me of the Grays, yet they seem taller, stronger, and more humanoid. One of them looks towards the camera.

“I think they know we’re watching, look!” Joey says as the creature reaches towards the camera with its freakish hand. The security screen goes blank. A crash echoes across the bridge from the right. 

“What the @*#$ was that!?”

“Let’s go find out, it came from the armory,” I say. We dash along the bizarre alien walkway towards the armory. At the door we pause and glance inside.

“What the #&@! is that?” Joey gasps when he sees it. A four legged alien creature writhing around on the floor, shrieking horrendously and convulsing. “It’s having a seizure or something!!” 

“I saw some of the aliens using them before. They’re alien bioweapons, watch out man, something’s wrong with it!” I shout. Its smooth amphibian like skin begins to darken and it starts to swell up like balloon. The alien shrieks become so loud the lenses of Joey’s glasses start to crack. “Take cover!” I shout. Suddenly a blast of cold air explodes out of the doorway, razor sharp ice crystals flying everywhere. When the sparkling icy dust settles, my friend looks me dead in the eyes.

“Let’s try something else those bioweapons seem too dangerous. I’m going to call the girls.” Joey says as he pulls out his phone and dials one of the girls. After a brief conversation he hangs up. “They reprogramed the ships internal defense turrets to target the remaining aliens on the ship. Let’s go check the security screens. I follow him back to the bridge and look at the security screens. 

“Look! The turrets are blowing those bastards to bits!” Joey shouts, “It’s working!”

“That’s great, I’m glad we didn’t have to get our hands dirty. But what about those weird looking ones that disabled the camera in the cargo hold? We’ll need to make sure it’s clear before we get to Neptune.”

“I’m sure they’re dead like the rest of ‘em. Why don’t you go down and check, just to make sure? I’ll head back to the control deck and check on the girls.” Joey says, still watching the ship’s turrets eradicate the remaining aliens.

“I’ll see if I can fix the camera, then we can meet back here afterwards and watch the drones load our diamonds into the cargo hold.” I replied grinning. “I know you’re skeptical, but I’m going to go get one of those alien weapons just in case the turrets in the cargo hold didn’t take care of those things. Let’s meet back here in twenty minutes. We’ll be to Neptune in less than a half an hour.”

“Sounds like a plan man, see you soon,” He begins to turn and head to the control room.

“Hey Joey, wait…are you sure you don’t want one of these alien weapons? There’s no telling what you might run into in my ship. I haven’t had a chance to explore everything yet. I just commandeered it earlier today.” I say, hoping he will change his mind.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Have fun in the cargo hold. We’ll call you if there’s any trouble,” He squints and takes off towards the cockpit. 

‘It’s my ship, I guess I better go make sure there aren’t any stowaways,’ I think to myself and return to the armory.

I enter the dark frigid room, careful to avoid the sharp spikes of ice protruding from the walls and floor. I walk towards the area where the alien weapon exploded. They don’t usually do that I think, shaking my head. It must have had a glitch. When I first escaped the alien prison, I encountered a smaller one of these living weapons, that’s how I managed to take over the ship. The walls are lined with more of the alien bioweapon creatures. They appear to be sleeping. I reach out toward one of the dormant creatures hanging on the armory wall and brace myself as it leaps toward me, nimbly climbing around my back and clasping down over my shoulders. It forms a psychic link that feels like icy roots reaching inside my brain. I can feel the power of its four weaponized limbs coursing through my body. 

“Is this thing on?” I say aloud.

“Weapons Online!” the machine speaks into my mind. It feels cold and foreign, but somehow I understand and know what to do. I focus my attention on a target and visualize the gun firing. “FIRE!“ The limbs of the creature recoil as four icy slugs blast out and explode against the target engulfing it in ice.

“That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” I say. I turn and dash for the teleporter in the corner of the room. Standing the center of the pulsating violet light, I visualize the cargo deck of the ship. The light begins to strobe and I feel myself dissolve. 

Seconds later I see the cargo hold begin to materialize before my eyes. It’s odd to think that I’m teleporting from place to place in tiny pieces, but I’m so excited to actually be able to that it’s getting more comfortable. There are a few bits of the Grays here and there, strewn over cargo crates and splattered onto the floor. But I don’t see the other creatures that were on the security camera.

“Show yourselves!” I shout into the gloomy stinking cargo hold. Suddenly something emerges from hiding. It stands just a few inches shorter than me, with eyes that look almost human. It has shaggy brown hair on its head and its skin is almost human, but slightly gray and totally hairless. “Don’t move or I’ll shoot!” The arms of the bioweapon focus on the creature standing before me.

“Please no! We mean you no harm, We are a hybrid of human and alien. We are the son of Jalis. We are Jalison. They locked us in the cargo hold because we would not assist them in their evil plan to take over planet Earth. Our mother Jalis was one of the Grays who took pity on the human race. She did not agree with the rest of the aliens and tried to thwart their plan to take over earth.” The creature says, with a strangely comforting gaze.

“How do I know I can trust you?” I reply, not entirely convinced this hybrid creature, Jalison, was trustworthy, “And what about the security camera? I saw you disable it earlier when I was on the bridge with Joey. How did you know I was watching you? It looked like you weren’t alone either!”

“We have several bodies, but one mind. We are connected to our mother and our father.” Jalison says. More of the hybrids appear from behind the cargo. “We want to help, let us help you. We want peace.” Their voices grew louder as more emerged. “We must go now, your friends are in danger!” There are now more than a dozen, surrounding the teleporter. There’s no way my gun can handle all of them, even with four barrels. I really hope they’re not lying to me. But I don’t have much of a choice at this point. 

The Jalison alien hybrids all speak in unison, “We must return to the control room, your companions are in danger!”

All of a sudden my phone starts ringing. It’s Joey. He is panicking, it sounds like there’s trouble in the cockpit. A loud commotion sounds through the phone. Suddenly the ship lurches, it feels like the hyperdrive is disengaged. I tell him I’ll be there soon and hang up. Turning to the hybrid I say, “How did you know?”

“We’ll explain later” Jalison says.

“Stay right here” I say right before I jump on the pulsing violet teleporter once more, this time visualizing the cockpit. I arrive just in time to see a Gray alien rip Meredith’s heart straight out of her chest. The alien watches it beat for a moment before the icy bullets from my weapon tear into the side of its big bald head. One of its black soulless eyes pops out and flies through the air. I disengage the alien gun and sprint to Meredith, catching her in my arms seconds before she hits the ground. She sputters and coughs, blood pours from her mouth.

“Go get those diamonds Bud. Sorry I won’t get to see it.” Meredith sputters with her last breath.

“Damn you alien bastards!” I cry, bashing my fists into the floor. “Joey, what happened?!”

“I don’t know man, that alien just came in through the teleporter! I tried to stop it but it paralyzed me with its psychic powers or something. I couldn’t move!” Joey was panicking.

“Where’s Tiffany?” I asked, quickly realizing we were missing another member of our crew.

“She ran off when the Gray teleported in here. She must be down on the bridge. I’ll go look for her, you work on getting that hyperdrive reengaged. Meredith gave her life trying to stop that alien from taking back the ship.” Joey replied.

“Okay, just be safe, I don’t need any more accidents. Please take my alien gun, don’t be scared.”

“For sure man, that thing looked pretty badass on you when you teleported in here and blasted that Gray bastard in the head. It’s too bad you weren’t a few seconds sooner. Maybe you could have saved her.” 

He was right but I had a feeling we could save her with some of the alien technology on the ship. I knew there was a medical bay, I saw it on the security camera. But right now I needed to focus on reengaging the hyperdrive. “Computer, reestablish our course for Neptune. Engage hyperdrive.” The stars stretched out and bang, the ship was cruising at top speed again in seconds. The computer informed me we were just minutes away from Neptune. 

As the ship approaches Neptune, the rain collection drones deploy from rail cannons on the front of the ship, blasting toward the billowing azure clouds on the exosphere of Neptune. I watch as they float through the gaseous planet, searching for diamond rain. That reminds me, I still need to make room for the diamonds in the cargo hold. I decide it isn’t safe to trust the hybrid aliens and jettison the entire cargo hold. Goodbye Jalison(s), hate it for you guys. Be at peace in death. It’s better than being prisoners at least. And perfect timing, the drones return to the ship, visibly loaded with millions of tons of beautiful diamonds. 

“Computer, take us back home. Don’t take orders from anyone but me. I’ll be right back,” I say to the computer. Just then Joey and Tiffany walk back into the control room. 

“We need to get Meredith and her heart to the medical bay. We’ll have to all be looking our best when we start spending our diamonds.” I say.

“I can’t believe we survived that journey.” Joey says, surveying the aftermath of our interplanetary trip. “Hopefully we can revive her on the way back.”