ENCOUNTER Hep Aldridge (best autobiographies to read .txt) 📖

“Jeannie has been briefing me on the repair procedure, and I must say, it’s quite amazing.”

“Really, Doc, from what I saw, I don’t know if we can get to the thing that needs to be repaired. I’m not sure we can make that climb with our gear.”

Doc laughed and looked at Jeannie, who was wearing her enigmatic smile, and said, “Well, then, it’s a good thing you aren’t going to have to climb, I suppose.”

I looked at Joe and Dimitri and back at Doc, “What did you say?” I asked.

“Not to worry, Jeannie has a plan. Come sit down, and she can explain.”

We went over and sat on the bottom step of the platform as Jeannie stood before us. A note, Jeannie never sits down, ever. I guess if you are an energy being, you never get tired of standing or floating around, whichever she does.

“From the pictures you sent back, the repair should be easily accomplished. All you must do is re-join the two pieces of the collector and then place it back on top of its base.”

Now, we all three looked at one another, and Dimitri said, “Jeannie, with all due respect, were you looking at the same pictures we were? Because what you’re saying is impossible.”

She laughed and said, “Now, Dimitri, after what you’ve been through, you should know better than to make a comment like that. Of course, it’s possible and well within your abilities to accomplish.” She paused. “With my help, of course.”

Now, Joe jumped in, “That broken piece looked like stone. Even if we could get up there with your assistance, how are we going reattach the pieces to each other?”

O’Reilly held up one of the gloves and one of the rods with the handle we had seen in the storeroom and said, “With this.”

Okay, in our absence, these guys had been briefed on how this whole thing would go down. So, we were in the dark. I told the guys to be quiet and looked at Jeannie.

“Okay, how about starting at the beginning and explain your plan to us?” I said.

“As you know, we have harnessed the capability of anti-gravity, using these devices,” she said, pointing to the stack of tools that had been assembled. “You will be able to ascend to the rim of the canyon, lift the two broken pieces, and fit them together, repair the break, and replace it atop its pedestal.”

“Oh, so that’s it, ascend, lift, repair, and replace; well, that sounds easy enough,” Joe said somewhat dubiously.

Not responding in any way to the uncertainty in Joe’s remark, Jeannie said, “I assure you, Joe, it will be.”

“Okay, we obviously need a little more explanation, please,” I said.

“Of course, Colt, you will don the anti-gravity devices, which you control with your mind, rise to the location at the rim of the canyon, attach two of the devices to the broken pillar, move it into place, and then Joe can use the rod to realign the molecules of it at the break. Working together, you will then raise it and place it back on top of its base. When in place, detach the devices, and return to the canyon floor.”

“Well, when you put it that way, it does sound kind of easy,” Dimitri said.

Joe looked at Jeannie and said, “If I’m going to be the one doing it, you need to explain to me how this molecular re-alignment works.”

“Quite simple; I can see you are a welder, so think of it as a very simple welding job. Nothing more. Put on the glove and take a rod, point it at the area to be repaired, and a beam will become visible like one of your lasers. Slowly move it along the crack. You will be able to sense how fast and when to move the beam.”

“Really?” he said with relief in his voice. “What about heat and eye protection?”

“There will be none and no reason to protect your eyes. Using this technology is a safe and simple process.”

Joe was an excellent welder, MiG, TiG, Oxy-acetylene, he could do it all, so using that analogy, he understood what he was to do.

I said, “Sounds good so far, but I think we need to know a little more about this anti-gravity stuff. I don’t want to go flying off into space or anything.”

Jeannie laughed and said, “Do not worry, Colt. We will practice here; you will see, it is simple and safe.”

For the next hour, we became acquainted with our alien tools and learned how to “fly,” i.e., adequately navigate in an artificial anti-gravity environment—how cool is that? She was right; it was rather simple. The belts with the small silver blocks attached provided the power for everything, tools and flight, and the anti-gravity devices clipped onto our belts as well. The first time I tried mine, I rose to the height of the top level of the platform and then glided effortlessly over to it and lowered myself on top. Damn, Jeannie was right; this was easy. All you had to do was think where you wanted to go, how fast, and go. Don’t get me wrong, it was bizarre, but she assured us these were short-range devices. They could go up and down and move laterally for a short distance. They weren’t meant for extended aerial excursions. Darn!

We loaded up the gear we needed and headed back to the canyon. We picked up the trail camera on the way, so we would have a visual connection with the Citadel. As we were walking to our “lift-off” point, I thought, a little over a week ago, we didn’t even know if the Citadel existed, and, here we were, getting ready to repair some alien power device with alien tools by flying to it using alien anti-gravity technology. This is crazy—absolutely crazy for a bunch who started as amateur adventurers!

We arrived at the lift-off spot and got ourselves ready.

“All right, guys, remember Jeannie said all we