PINE GAP: Part one

“Secret Australian Base” Pine Gap

Located 20km south-west of Alice Springs, NT.

12:00 am, Sunday, UTC + 9:30 (Australian Central Time Zone)


He was glad he had set his tent up before it got dark but he should have put a light or something on it; trying to find it again in the pitch black darkness was going to be a pretty hard task.

He grabbed his torch and flicked it on.

The yellow cone of light flashed on for a second, flickered and then went out.

Jim stopped and looked down at the torch.

That didn’t make any sense; he’d changed the batteries in the torch before he had left that morning.

He swore and kept walking, straining his eyes against the darkness. He was sure he hadn’t walked that far away from his camp site when he went to take a leak. If he could only make out the outline of his car or tent...

A brilliant yellow light erupted all around Jim, illuminating the darkness, and he found that he was only a few meters to the left of his camp site.

He turned around to see what had caused the light, it was so bright!

His mouth fell open.

Shooting into the sky was a yellow beam; it was brighter than anything Jim had ever seen before. It seemed to be cylindrical in shape and very wide, at least the width of the front of a house.

It seemed to stretch into the atmosphere and keep on going.

The light was so bright that it turned night into day, Jim could see for kilometres around. Not that there was much to see. He was in the middle of nowhere with only tufts of grass and dead trees for company.

He walked towards the light, wanting to see where it was coming from. He walked for a kilometre but before he could make it to where the light was coming from, it retracted, back towards the ground.

Jim stood staring at the sky, the beam of light still visible in his eyes as if it had been burned into them.

It was pitch black again, and he didn’t know where his camp site was. Again.

Jim shook his head and looked back behind him, his eyes still trying to adjust to the sudden darkness.

He’d have to wait a couple of minutes for them to get used to the dark again.

Before he’s eyes could adjust however, the world lit up again. Quickly Jim turned around and started to run towards the light before it went away.

He ran up a small hill and was confronted with a sign.



JOINT DEFENCE FACILITY PINE GAP

PROHIBITED AREA

TURN AROUND NOW.



Puffing heavily, Jim stopped at the sign.

This was government property?

The light retracted again, bringing the darkness with only the stars above for light.

Jim’s breathing steadied as he looked into the ocean of stars.

What was the light all about?

What where the government doing?

Jim realised that he was hopelessly lost now. He was starting to get cold, despite his short run and the three jackets he was wearing, not to mention is thermal long johns. He couldn’t find his camp site without his torch or the light.

As he stared into the sky, hoping to come up with an answer, Jim noticed a star moving towards him.

He frowned.

Maybe it was a satellite?

It shone brighter and brighter until it seemed to break into four smaller stars, which shot off in four different directions. The star Jim had been watching was still there, it continued moving towards him until it was directly above him.

Suddenly, the yellow light shot back into the sky.

Jim lost sight of the star.

A few minutes later the light retracted towards the ground.

Jim was nowhere to be found.







Alice Springs Police Station

Northern Territory, Australia

10:00am, Sunday, UTC + 9:30 (Australian Central Time Zone)


The phones had been ringing off the hook. Reports of a bright light that had been seen shooting into the sky late last night had been coming in for the last few hours. There had also been claims of moving stars seen not long after the ‘light’ had been shone into the sky.

Constable Carl Costar hung up his sixth call of the day about the mysterious light. He rubbed his eyes. This was going to be a long day.

“Do you think someone was trying to call batman?” Carl’s partner quipped as he hung up his phone.

Carl snorted through his nose as his phone rang again.

“Alice Springs Police Station, Constable Costar, how can I assist you?” Carl recited, ready to take down another report of the light.

“Hello, I would like to report a missing person,” A timid, female voice came across the phone.

Carl sat up in his seat.

“OK, who is the person in question?”

“His name was Jim Wane,”

“And how long has Jim being missing for?” Carl asked as he wrote down the name.

“Since last night, he should’ve been home early this morning but he isn’t,”

Carl slumped in his seat.

“Does Jim have any illnesses or health concerns?”

“No, he was fine the last time I saw him,”

“And when was that?”

“Friday afternoon, before he left to go camping,”

“Did he go with anyone else?” Carl asked. He felt like this was a waste of time. Jim had probably gotten drunk or slept in and was running late. He’d show up by the end of the day, but protocol said that he had to take a report.

“No, just by himself,” The female voice was still small, Carl had to admit, she sounded very worried.

“Did he let you or anyone else know where he was going?

“No,” The girl sniffed on the phone.

“Can I get your name and contact details ma’am?”

The girl gave her details and Carl finished up the phone call.

“Number seven,” Carl’s partner said as Carl stood up, “Where are you going?”

“File a missing persons report,” Carl said.





Home of Jim Wane

Alice Springs, NT

10:15am, Sunday, UTC +9:30 (Australian Central Time Zone)


Beth put the phone back on the cradle and looked about herself.

She didn’t know what to do.

It was so unlike Jim to not let her know if he was going to be late, or if he had decided to stay longer. He had a phone and failing that, his CB radio in his car.

Beth sat down on the couch next to the phone and looked around the lounge room. It was only small, there just enough room for the couch to be in the middle of the room with a small table next to it, which held the phone. The TV was in front of the couch and a coffee table was in between the two. Pictures filled the walls, showing Jim and Beth camping at different places and one where Jim had danced with Beth at her debutante ball.

Beth was Jim’s daughter.

Everyone said that Beth had her dads smile, but her mother’s blonde hair. It was only the two of them. Beth’s mum having disappeared herself when Beth had been a toddler.

Which was why Beth was so worried now.

She couldn’t face having another parent disappear on her.

Her first thought had been to call the police when her father hadn’t shown up home when he had said he would. She wasn’t sure that they had taken it all that seriously.

If she was honest with herself, she probably over reacted.

Jim was barely an hour late, he’d probably come trundling up the drive way any minute.

Beth peered out of the window, hoping that she would see his car coming up the driveway.

Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the same colour car as his drive down the road, only to be disappointed as the car passed their drive way.

What if something happened to him that stopped him from calling or getting on the radio?

Beth got off the couch and started to pace.

It was a nervous habit that she had inherited from her mother, Jim always said.

She didn’t know what else to do.

absent-mindedly, she walked into the kitchen.

She’d been staying at a friend’s house all weekend, but had come home this morning to see her dad.

Typically he’d left the kitchen a mess.

Dishes in the sink, not soaking. Mail all over the kitchen table and his favourite coffee mug still sitting on a map with his chair not tucked back into the table.

Beth went over to the map and looked at it.

There were a few red circles on it, all at different locations.

Beth didn’t know why her dad had gone camping, it seems as though he was looking for something though.

What, however, she had no idea.

But this at least gave her a clue of where to start looking.

She grabbed her keys and the map and headed out to her car.







Location UNKNOWN

Time UNKNOWN


Jim blinked a couple of times; His head felt foggy and for a moment he was disoriented. He was lying down, that much he knew.

Where he was though, he did not know.

It was so dark that Jim couldn’t even see his hand when he waved it in front of his face.

He stayed laying down, breathing slowly, and trying not to panic.

Then he realised something.

He wasn’t outside. It wasn’t cold, and what’s more, there were no stars.

He looked around, but there was nothing to see. Every way he turned his head there was nothing but darkness. It felt like it was suffocating him.

Jim was dimly aware of some sort of humming that sounded like machinery. It was barely audible and he wasn’t sure if it had been going the whole time.

He tried to ignore it.

Jim realised, after moving his legs to try to feel for an edge, that he was lying on the ground.

He slowly stood himself up and, glad that it was dark and no one could see him, began slowly walking around with his arms out in front of him. With his left hand he found a wall, and slowly; keeping his hand on the wall, moved along it. The wall felt smooth under his hand, like glass, but it didn’t make that squeaking noise glass did when you ran your fingers along it. He wished he had a lighter, or even his torch, but a quick search of his person revealed that he had nothing on him but his clothes. The darkness kept pushing on him, and Jim found himself irrationally starting to feel claustrophobic. He pushed his right hand out to see if he could feel anything else; he felt nothing but air.

After a of couple minutes of walking around, Jim found four walls and even felt brave enough to venture away from them.

The room he was in was empty. He hadn’t felt a door, or window. As far as he could tell this room was designed to keep light out and him inside.

And the whole time the dull hum kept going. One constant pitch, just always there. But not there. Jim didn’t know how to describe it. He was sure that he could hear it, but with no one else to confer with, he couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t in his head. His head started to ache.

He sat himself down against the wall. He didn’t know what to do. The room was the darkest dark he had ever encountered. It felt like it was pushing on him, he had no idea how long he had been there for. And that hum just wouldn’t go away!

In the darkness, alone, with no clue where he was, Jim tried to keep the creeping feeling of dread at bay.





Alice Springs

Northern Territory of Australia

11:30am, Sunday, UTC + 9:30 (Australian Central Time Zone)

1hr and 15 minutes since Jim Wane reported missing


The day was hot, really hot. Carl was sitting in his patrol car staring down the road. He had kept the patrol car running so that they could keep the air conditioning on. His partner had fallen asleep against the window in the passenger seat. Jim shook his head. That bloke had no attention span.

They were sitting on a stretch of road just out of town, radar gun pointing out of the window along the same road Carl was staring down. A car hadn’t passed in a while, and they weren’t allowed to have the car radio on, so all Carl had to listen to was his partners’ snores and his colleagues as they radioed various things in.

Carl yawned; it was pretty boring. They had nothing to hide behind, so everyone could see them a mile off; no one was caught speeding along this road. He looked up at the clear blue sky, wondering what it must’ve looked like to see a mysterious light suddenly shine up into it and whether you could’ve seen it during the day.

Something glinted in the sky.

Carl suddenly moved closer to the window; A movement that woke his partner.

“What didya see?” He asked sleepily, rubbing one eye and trying to peer down the road.

Carl slumped back into the driver seat, “Nothing, just spotted a plane in the sky,”

“You got excited over that?” His partner chuckled, “Not starting to believe those UFO stories are you?”

Carl just exhaled through his nose in response. Small snores a moment later told Carl that he again was alone to watch the road coming out of Alice Springs.

He glanced down at the road and saw a small spec coming their way.

With nothing better to do, Carl waited till the car got within range, pointed the radar gun at the car and pulled the trigger.

The speed limit on the road out of town was 100 kph; the car was doing 110 kph.

Carl smiled, he loved putting on the siren and getting to gun the police car to catch up to speeders. Especially when he could do it when his partner was asleep.

“WHAT THE F..!!” He’s partner yelled as Carl floored it, fishtailing the car as he made a hasty U-turn to catch up to the small car that had just flown past.

The small car pulled over when it saw Carl gaining on it, and Carl pulled in behind it and proceeded to walk up to the driver’s window.

“Do you know why I pulled you over this morning?” He asked, looking down the road, trying to act as if he did this every day.

“No officer,” A small voice said.

Carl looked into the window and almost lost himself for a moment.

The driver was female, blonde hair, blue eyes with freckles over her nose. She was cute.

“You- you were going ten k’s over the speed limit,” Carl recovered, “Is there any reason why that would be?”

“I’m just in a hurry to find my Dad,” She answered softly, looking at her steering wheel.

Carl wanted to let her go. He felt sorry for her even if he didn’t know why.

“Can I please have your driver’s licence?” He waited while she got it for him

“Is your dad missing?” Carl asked as he looked at her licence, god she was only twenty.

Beth, according to her licence, nodded.

“For how long?” Carl asked.

“I reported it this morning,” Beth said, a note of irritation creeping into her voice.

Carl’s eyes widened a bit. This was the girl that had made the missing person’s report to him this morning; her name on her licence matched the name he had gotten off her.

Carl excused himself then walked back to his patrol car.

“What excuse was it this time?” His partner asked as Carl started to write a ticket, while he tapped on the laptop in the patrol car, “Nothing on her plates,”

“Finding her dad, it’s the girl I took the statement from on the phone this morning” Carl replied.

“Really?” His partner grabbed the girls licence and whistled, “She’s a cutie,”

“Looks better in person” Carl said grabbing the licence back and finishing off the ticket.

“You’re still giving her a ticket?” His partner asked surprised.

“She was speeding,” Carl said simply, getting out of the car and walking back over to Beth.

“Here’s your ticket, make sure you stick to the speed limit ok? Even if you are looking for your dad,”

Beth just took the ticket but didn’t say anything.

“If you’ve reported him missing, why are you leaving town?” Carl asked suddenly.

Beth looked up at him from her driver’s seat, “I’m not leaving town, I think I’ve found where he might have been last. Am I allowed to go?”

Carl nodded and Beth drove off.

“She pissed off with you? Thought she’d get out of a ticket?” Carl’s partner asked when he got back into the car.

“No,” Carl answered as he made a U-turn to go back to their radar spot, “She didn’t even care”









Kuyunba Conservation Reserve

25km South West of Alice Springs, NT

12:01pm, Sunday, UTC + 9:30 (Australian Central Time Zone)

1hr and 30mins after Jim Wane reported missing


The speeding ticket, lifted by the wind coming through the open window of Beth’s car, fell to the floor on the passenger’s seat side as Beth drove towards one of the circles marked on her father’s map. She wished she had a new car. Her air conditioning was broken, so all she could do was wind down her windows and let the hot hair blow in to try and cool her down. Her bottom was sore from bumping up and down over the hilly terrain and dust was getting into her car. She hoped she found Jim soon. She’d make him clean her car when she did.

She’d already been to one location marked on the map and had a look around. There had been nothing there to see. Every direction she looked she saw orange dirt and hills pitted with the skeletal vegetation that grew all around.

There had been no sign that her dad had even made it to that spot. No fire pit or car tracks. So she had decided to go on to the next one. She checked the map, and put on the brakes. She was here.

She got out of the car; the heat bearing down on her was incredible. She was used to it, but that didn’t mean she liked it.

With one foot still in the car, hanging onto the door frame and hand over her eyes so she could see, Beth scanned the scene around her. It was just like the last location.

Nothing to be seen, why had her dad come out here?

She walked around for a little while, wanting to get out of the car and rest her bottom. She could see a ridge that seemed to stretch for a few kilometres, but closer to where she was standing, the ridge was split and a path ran through it leading somewhere that Beth couldn’t see.

Beth had heard that there was a government facility somewhere just outside of town. It was apparently a monitoring station for U.S satellites. Covert U.S Satellites. This government facility was supposedly a joint venture by both the Australian government and the American Government; Beth thought it was called Joint Defence Facility or something like that. In town it was known as Pine Gap. It was a place that had kept their economy flourishing, so no one asked too many questions.

Beth, wondering if she had found it, decided to drive to the ridge and see if she was right.

Her car wouldn’t start, so Beth decided to walk it.

Half an hour later, she regretted that decision as the heat didn’t dissipate, she had no water and she’d greatly misjudged the distance.

She finally stood atop of the ridge and looked down, a smile spreading across her face.

She had found it.

What struck her first was that there were several huge white spheres. Three were nestled together and one sat a few hundred meters from the rest. There were also smaller spheres amongst the bigger ones. Beth didn’t know what they were for. The rest of the facility was spread out amongst the spheres. It was big. The buildings made up a square. All of the buildings were in rows, the top buildings of the ‘square’ were all horizontal, except the sides of the ‘square’; they were vertical, as were all the other buildings. A chain link fence seemed to run round the entire facility. Big metal gates along the fence gave away the entry points, as well as the guard stations next to them

As Beth looked down at the facility, she noticed a jeep leave the entrance that was closest to her; the jeep turned towards her and started driving her way.

It was time to go.

Before she even got to turn around however, the roof of one of the ‘buildings’ opened up to the heavens, and something that reflected the day light off it so much, that even though Beth was a long distance away she still had to shield her eyes, came out of it. Beth put her hand up to her eyes to protect them and when she moved it away, whatever had come out the ‘building’ had disappeared. The ‘buildings’ roof was closed again and it looked ordinary once more.

The car that had come out of the facility was still coming; Beth eyed it warily, then turned and headed back to her car.







Location UNKNOWN

Time UNKNOWN


The humming wouldn’t stop. It just kept going, constant and unchanging. The darkness didn’t lift, Jim wasn’t even sure if he was awake or asleep anymore.

It didn’t matter.

He couldn’t see, he hadn’t eaten or had anything to drink, and the floor was hard. Jim was numb. He couldn’t think. He didn’t know what to do. He had curled up along the wall in the fetal position. He’d lost track of time.

Jim didn’t care.

Almost as if he had blinked, harsh white lights were on. Jim held up his hand to shield his eyes from the sudden change in light. He’d been in the dark so long that the white light hurt his eyes. As his eyes grew used to the light, Jim could see the room that he had been blindly walking around in.

The room was completely white. The walls, the floor and ceiling seemed to be made of marble. There were no windows or doors; there was no hatch in the ceiling or trap door on the ground. It was almost as if the room had been built around Jim.

Slowly, as if he had forgotten how, Jim stood up. He couldn’t even see where the light was coming from; it seemed to be coming from nowhere, as if the room was made of light.

The humming had finally stopped.

Jim heard a rustling to his right and turned towards it.

Facing the wall was a blonde woman; she seemed to be staring into the corner.

As his eyes grew ever more used to the light, Jim started.

It was Beth!

He started to move towards her.

“Beth?” His voice came out hoarse and cautious.

Beth didn’t turn around.

“Beth, it’s Dad,” He said gently.

Still she didn’t turn around.

Then Jim took in her clothes.

Beth normally wore blue and white converse’s with jeans. But it seemed she had ditched them for open toed shoes.

Jim froze.

She had a toe ring on her second toe. Beth didn’t wear jewellery, and the last time he had seen that toe ring, Beth had barely been able to walk…

“Carol?” Jim said in astonishment.

The woman’s head moved to the side, like a nervous twitch.

“Please, not this again,” She said, her voice weary and soft, she didn’t turn around.

“Carol it’s me! It’s Jim,” Jim said walking up behind her.

He reached out for her shoulder.

“DON’T TOUCH ME!” Carol suddenly screamed turning around.

Her face had the haunted look of someone who hadn’t eaten for a long time. Her eyes had sunken into her head and had deep black shadows. She was very skinny and her clothes seemed to hang off her.

“Carol what’s happened to you?!” Jim exclaimed looking her up and down in horror.

“You did this to me!” Carol shouted, backing away to the corner furthest from him, “You keep doing this to me!”

Jim didn’t know what was going on; he hadn’t seen her in years. He told her so.

“DON’T LIE TO ME! YOU’VE BEEN EXPERIMENTING ON ME FOR YEARS!” Carol was starting to get hysteric. She was rubbing her arms, looking around the room and starting to pace. She was also getting louder the more she spoke.

“Carol, it’s really me, it’s Jim!”

“LIES! YOU’RE NOT GOING TO TRICK ME AGAIN! I WON’T DO IT AGAIN!” Carol was red in the face from screaming, she started to repeat, ‘I won’t do it again’ over and over.

Jim’s head was starting to ache again; the humming seemed to be coming back.

Carol kept screaming.

“Carol! Carol! You have to believe me! It’s really me!” Jim shouted over her, trying to calm her down. He had never seen her like this. He was frightened.

“NOT AGAIN! NOT AGAIN! NOT AGAIN!” Carol started pacing up and down along the wall, not looking at Jim, repeating herself over and over.

The humming was definitely back.

Jim felt like his head was about to explode.

He started to go over to Carol, to grab her, force her to believe him.

“NO! I WON’T GIVE YOU ANOTHER! I WON’T! NOT AGAIN!”

The light went out, Carol’s voice stopped. The humming continued.

“CAROL!” Jim shouted in the darkness. He hurried around the room, trying to feel her, “Carol talk to me!”

The humming seemed to grow louder.

The light came back on.

Jim recoiled at the suddenness of it, blinking furiously to get his eyes used to the light again.

“Carol!”

Jim span around on the spot.

Carol had disappeared.

Jim sat in the middle of the room, had he really seen her?

There was no trace of anyone else having been in the room.

Jim looked down at the floor, he had been sure he had seen her; maybe he had fallen asleep and dreamt it.

But the light was on, he hadn’t dreamt that.

No sooner had that thought entered Jim’s mind then the light went out.

The humming continued, the darkness seemed even darker after the light.

Jim curled himself back into a ball on the floor, not even sure that there had been a light on anymore.





Alice Springs Police Station

Northern Territory, Australia

9:30am, Monday, UTC + 9:30 (Australian Central Time Zone)

1 day after Jim Wane reported missing


The coffee machine at the precinct had always been temperamental, but Carl was sure that it had a personal vendetta against him. Every morning, Carl would come into the tea room, grab a Styrofoam cup, place it under the spout that poured the coffee and hit the button on the machine. Without fail, the machine would either be out of coffee, milk or hadn’t been cleaned. Even when he had fixed these problems, the machine wouldn’t make his coffee. He’d go sit at his desk, watch another officer go into the tea room and then walk out with a steaming hot cup of coffee. His partner found it hilarious and asked why he just didn’t go the coffee shop that was a block down from the station. For Carl it was a matter of pride.

He would get that coffee machine to like him.

He was sitting at his desk, staring at the door to the tea room, as was his morning ritual, when the door to the front of the station opened and two men wearing black sunglasses, suits and ties walked in.

They were in stark contrast to the beige and wide brimmed hats that the Police in the Northern Territory wore. Everyone turned and watched them as they strode towards the Chiefs office. Carl noticed they had a twirly white material coming out of their ears.

Ear wigs.

Carl frowned; he’d only seen them on security for high profile people. One of the pair held a white piece of paper in his hand. Carl eyed it has they walked, hoping he could get a clue as to what it was.

He didn’t.

Without even knocking, the two men walked into the chief’s office.

Carl looked at his partner and said, “What do you think they want?”

His partner shrugged, “Don’t know, don’t care. As long as it has nothing to do with me,”

“You’re not the least bit curious?”

His partner just shook his head.

Carl looked back at the chief’s office door and then quickly looked down.

The chief was standing at the door, looking over at him.

“Costar! Get in here!”

Carl groaned.

“Never make eye contact!” His partner said with a massive smile on his face as Carl stood up.

Carl mimicked him in a high pitched voice and went to the chief’s office.

Whenever there were guys like this involved, it was either the Prime Minister coming to town for some reason or some celebrity that had hired security guards, that took their jobs way to seriously, just wanting someone to show them around. It was a boring and time wasting assignment that the chief seemingly gave to anyone who made eye contact with him when they came.

“Costar, these two gentlemen are here on behalf of the Australian government,” The chief said standing behind his desk and gesturing to the two agents standing next to it.

So it was the Prime Minister.

“They want to ask you a few questions about a speeding ticket you gave out yesterday,”

Carl frowned.

“The government wants to ask me about a ticket?”

“About the person you gave it too,” One of the agents said and handing Carl the piece of paper he had been trying to see before.

It wasn’t a piece of paper, it was a photo.

It showed a girl standing on top of a ridge, looking down at something.

Carl recognised her instantly as the girl he had given the speeding ticket too.

Beth.

“Was she the one you gave the ticket too?”

Everything inside Carl told him to lie, but he had a feeling that these government types already knew the answer.

He nodded and said “Who is she?”

“Someone who trespassed on government property,” The second man said, Carl looked at him. He had an American accent.

“Did she take something?”

“Did you talk to her this morning about a missing person report?” The Australian agent spoke this time.

“Yes,”

“Did you file it?”

Again, Carl nodded.

“We need you to get the report back and bring it to us,”

Carl looked at the Chief confused. The Chief wasn’t looking at him.

“Are you taking over the case?”

The two agents didn’t answer, so Carl asked, “Has he been found?”

“Mr Costar, just do as we have asked,” The American said.

Carl slowly stood up and went to fetch the report.

He came back a few minutes later; he hadn’t fully closed the door when he had left, it was ajar.

“… is to know that we have taken this. Costar didn’t file the report as far as anyone is concerned,” The American agent was saying to the Chief, Carl guessed.

The Chief must have nodded, because he didn’t reply.

Carl looked down at the report in his hand.

Why would the government be covering the disappearance of this man up?

Maybe he was a government spy?

It seemed likely.

Something nagged at the back of Carl’s mind.

He quickly opened up the file, read something then went into the office.

“Here you go,” He said, handing the file to the Australian agent.

“Thank you Mr Costar, that’ll be all,”

Carl walked back over to his desk.

“What was all that about?” His partner asked.

Carl just held up his hand, to tell him to be quiet, and quickly wrote something down.

It was Beth’s address.









Home of Jim Wane

Alice Springs, NT

7:10pm, Monday, UTC+ 9:30 (Australian Central Time Zone)

1 day after Jim Wane reported missing


Beth rushed around the house, grabbing items and throwing them into a backpack that she had on the kitchen table. The map her dad had marked locations on was lying on the table as well. Beth had drawn black X’s on the locations she’d already been too. There was only one location left.

After yesterday, Beth had decided to go there under the cover of darkness. There was less chance of her being noticed, she thought. She grabbed the spare torch her dad kept under the sink and pressed the button. The beam of light was weak, the batteries needed to be changed.

She had just finished changing the batteries when there was a knock on the front door.

Beth froze.

Whoever was at the front door knocked again.

Beth crept up to the door, trying not to make a sound, and looked through the peephole.

She saw the face of the policeman who had given her the ticket yesterday.

Surely he wasn’t here to arrest her for that!

For a moment Beth freaked out; she’d only been speeding!

But then she noticed that he wasn’t in his uniform.

Confused, Beth yelled out, “Who are you?”

Looking through the peephole, Beth saw the policeman’s head snap up and look at the top of the door.

“It’s Constable Costar; I need to talk to you,”

Beth wasn’t sure what to do, it was getting past twilight now and she still had a few more things she wanted to make sure she packed.

She unlocked the door and opened it up, so that only a small part of her face could be seen, “Talk about what?”

The constable was a little taken aback; it seemed that he had been expecting to be invited inside.

“Um… We had some government officials come to the station today, they were asking about you,”

“Me?” Beth said surprised, she opened the door a bit wider.

“Yeah, I don’t know why, but they took your dad’s missing person’s report,”

“What?!” Beth exclaimed, straightening up, “Have they found him?”

“I don’t know, they wouldn’t answer me when I asked,”

“Right,” Beth said, deflating,” well, thanks for telling me,”

She went to close the door.

‘”Hold on,” Constable Costar said putting his hand on the door to stop it from closing, “They had a photo of you on a ridge somewhere,”

Beth’s eyes widened.

“Did you break into a government facility?”

Beth shook her head.

“Then why would they be looking for you just for trespassing? What’s going on?”

Beth looked at the Constable. Shaken as she was that someone had taken a picture of her when she thought she’d been alone, finding her Dad was on the forefront of her mind.

As she looked at Costar, a car pulled up the driveway. It was dark enough that they had turned on their lights. Costar turned as the car lights illuminated the door way and his face dropped.

The car stopped and the doors opened, two men in black suits got out of the car.

“Mr Costar, why are you here?”

Quickly, Beth left the young policeman to explain why he was at her house and grabbed her backpack.

She hadn’t been able to grab everything she wanted, but she had enough.

Beth went into the garage and grabbed her old bike. She couldn’t risk the car.

She left out the backdoor of the garage and pedaled hard, heading the opposite way to the way the car had come.

Beth wasn’t the fittest person, and the ride to the last location that her dad had marked on the map was further than she had ever ridden in her life.

She’d only ridden a few kilometres towards the end of the town when lights erupted around her.

She put the brakes on the bike and turned around.

“Beth?” It was Costar.

“Where are you going? Those government agents are looking for you!”

“I’m going to find my dad,” Beth said then started to pedal.

“Let me help you!” Costar said.

Beth stopped, “Why would you help me?”

“Cause there’s something weird going on and somehow you’re stuck in the middle of it. You could use my help,” Costar explained.

Beth had one foot on the ground; the headlights of Costar’s car were blinding her as she tried to look at him. She looked at the way she was pedalling and then looked back, “Ok, I need you to take me somewhere”





Jim Wane’s Camp Site

19kms South West from Alice Springs, NT

7:40pm, Monday, UTC + 9:30 (Australian Central Time Zone)

1 day after Jim Wane reported missing


The trip out of town had been a quiet one.

Beth had shown Carl the location she wanted to go to on a map, left her bike by the side of the road and since then had said nothing.

Carl had looked at her.

She had been sitting in the passenger seat looking out the window, so all Carl could see was the back of her head.

He looked back out of the windshield.

Outside of town it was pitch black. There were no street lights, so he was driving by his headlights, a few meters at a time. It was dangerous. Kangaroos could jump out at any time, and Carl’s car, while been large, wasn’t strong enough to survive that encounter. Kangaroos caused a lot of damage to cars. As a policeman, Carl had been to too many car crashes which involved kangaroos. It was never pretty.

They had bumped and dipped their way to the location on the map, Carl had been worried that something vital was going to fall off his car.

But finally they had made it.

Carl’s head lights lit up the scene.

A white four wheel drive was parked next to a green tent.

A few small stones arranged in a circle revealed that someone had had a fire and a foldable table was set up next to it that had a tin plate, which was dirty, and a matching cup, still with cold coffee in it, on top.

Beth got out of the car and went over to the four wheel drive.

“It’s Dads!” She exclaimed and opened the driver side door.

The sound of static shattered the silence of the night and made Carl jump. Luckily Beth had been too focused on the CB radio to notice.

“Where has he got too?” Beth asked, it seemed more to herself than to Carl.

Carl looked around. The campsite wasn’t very big. It seemed as though no one had been there for a while. The coal in the fire pit was black and could be picked up.

There wasn’t a lot else around though.

Beth was going through the tent now; Carl could see her torch light through the tent walls.

It was starting to get cold.

Carl walked around the camp site, trying to keep himself warm while Beth looked through her father’s belongings. He noticed a shovel standing several meters from the camp site by itself. He went over to investigate and nearly put his foot into a shallow hole that had been dug.

He bent down to examine it and fell back, gagging.

It was a toilet hole.

“Hey!” Beth shouted!

Carl turned around, just as everything went dark.

Carl’s car lights had turned themselves off, as had Beth’s torch.

Beth was swearing at her torch trying to get it to turn back on, muttering something about having changed the batteries earlier.

Carl went to his car and found that it had turned itself off. He tried to turn it back on. But it wouldn’t start. It was his turn to swear; the battery was dead.

“Does your dad have jumper cables in the car,” Carl asked into the darkness.

“Should have,” Came Beth’s reply.

Carl went over to the four wheel drive and opened the back.

There was heaps of junk in it. Bottles of water, petrol and material that Carl guessed was the water proof outer protective part of the tent.

He turned back around to shout out to Beth that he couldn’t find the cables when he noticed something moving in the sky.

He watched it as it moved slowly across the star strewn blackness. Lights blinked on and off and flashed different colours.

It was an aeroplane.

Carl shook his head and smiled. He was spooking himself.

Then Beth said,” What’s that in the sky?”

“Plane,” Carl called back and started rummaging around the back of the four wheel drive again.

“I’ve never seen a plane do that,” Beth said.

Carl looked up into the sky again and his jaw dropped.

The ‘plane’ was moving erratically through the sky, up and down, side to side, changing direction faster than any plane could.

Both Carl and Beth were looking up into the sky now, watching the mysterious object zoom around, as if hypnotized.

With shocking abruptness, the ‘plane’ started moving in a straight line, towards Beth and Carl who stood frozen in awe.

They watched as it dived down, levelling itself off so that it seemed it was barely more than a four story house off the ground and continue straight towards them. No dust was kicked up underneath it, and the lights kept flashing different colours.

Red, blue, pink, yellow, orange. There was no sound.

The object itself was circular; on the top was a bubble and the disc surrounding the bubble seemed to be spinning.

“It can’t be…,” Beth breathed, Carl barely heard her.

The object flew right over the top of them. Carl craned his next to see the underside. It had two rows of three lights that met at one end, so that they formed a V and the point of the V had another light on it. As Carl watched, the light at the point of the V seemed to flash, like someone took a photo with a camera.

Then the object flew directly up. There was no sound, no rush of wind, nothing.

Carl was pushed to the ground as if by an invisible hand.

When he stood back up and looked at the sky, he couldn’t see the object anymore.

“That was incredible!” he exclaimed still looking at the sky, “Don’t you think Beth?”

He turned to look at Beth.

But the Camp Site was empty.