“I thought she’d say yes,” Mike commented with a grin. Micky was grinning, too, from ear to ear, and Jenny was also smiling. “You two seem to be perfect for each other.”

The two both nodded. “Yeah,” Micky agreed, glancing towards his new fiancée. “We are.”

“Say, are you doing anything tonight?” Mike asked. “I wanna take you two out for dinner to celebrate. The whole gang.”

Micky and Jenny glanced at each other. “It sounds terrific,” Jenny said.

“It’s kinda short notice,” Micky pointed out. “Shouldn’t we wait until Peter gets better anyway?”

Mike nodded. “Good idea,” he agreed. “As soon as he feels better we’re goin’ out, though,” he decided, and Jenny and Micky both nodded.

The front door opened just then, and Joanne entered the Pad. “Uncle Mike?” she asked. She stepped away from the front door and walked over to him. He could see she was carrying something.

“What’s the matter?”

“Mom says you should take him now,” his niece replied, thrusting the object into his arms. Mike could see then that it was a baby. “She said she’s done with him because she’s already got four kids to take care of and she doesn’t need another. If you have any problems you can just complain all you want, but she ain’t takin’ him back.”

Mike nodded as he reluctantly took Robert into his arms. The baby immediately began to cry loudly. He sighed.

“Here, let me hold him, Mike,” Jenny offered. “You’ve got it all wrong.”

Mike gladly handed over the baby. Once out of his arms, he calmed down immediately. Mike sighed. Micky, Jenny, and Joanne laughed.

“Are you sure you want to see this?” Thomas asked as he looked between Peter and Joel.

“’Course I do,” Joel replied with a nod. “I want to see what it looks like.”

‘It’s not actually that interesting,’ Peter pointed out. Joel shrugged.

“You are a dog, and you can talk,” Joel stated. “You didn’t think that was that interesting, but I do.”

’A matter of opinion, I suppose,’ the blond dog replied with a tired sigh. ’You’ll have to wait anyway,’ he added. ’I haven’t got the strength right now.’

“Oh, of course,” Joel said, nodding with understanding. “Whenever you’re ready.”

The door to the room opened just then. “Joel,” Theresa said, sticking her head in. “We need you out here. Mrs. Thompson’s dog is having puppies.”

“Coming!” Joel called, rushing out of the room in a hurry and nearly tripping over his own feet, leaving both Peter and Thomas laughing slightly.

’Are you sure this is a good idea?’ Peter asked.

Thomas shrugged. “I think it is,” he replied. “I trust him.”

’I never said I didn’t trust him,’ Peter replied. ‘It’s just that I wonder about his health.’

Thomas just shrugged again.

Jenny set the now silent baby down in its crib. “He is cute, Mike,” she told him. “But I don’t think I can take him right now.”

“Fiona did want you to take care of him,” Micky pointed out.

Mike sighed again. “Yeah, but I don’t think that was the smartest idea.” He followed Micky and Jenny out of the converted baby room. Once in the living room, he sank down into the couch. “I can’t take care of a baby!” he groaned.

“Sure you can!” Jenny replied. “You just have to get used to it.”

Mike frowned, unconvinced. “Why can’t she just keep him?” he grumbled under his breath. “It’s her kid after all.” He grumbled a bit more to himself, but neither Jenny nor Micky understood what he had said.

Micky glanced at the clock and noticed it was five-fifteen. “Hey, Davy never came home for lunch,” he observed. “I wonder where he is.”

“Probably with a girl,” Mike decided, pausing in his grumbling. “I just hope he remembers to pick up Thomas.”

“Want me to pick him up?” Micky volunteered. Mike shook head.

“Nah,” he replied. “Davy will do it.”

Thomas was waiting outside the office when Davy showed up at ten after five. “You’re late,” he informed his uncle as he climbed over the door.

“What, ten minutes?” Davy asked. He shrugged. “Sorry about that, Tom. I got caught up in something.”

Thomas nodded, understanding but skeptical. “Saw a girl, huh?” he asked.

Davy didn’t answer, but he didn’t have to. His face was red enough to speak for him. Thomas laughed the rest of the way home.

It had been a long day, the boy decided as he searched through his old toy box. He’d been up for a long time, and there had certainly been a lot to think about. He’d spent the day at the vets, discovered that Davy was in love (again), and Micky was now engaged. He laughed again softly when he thought about Davy’s face at learning that. He’d been shocked, to say the least. But despite the long day, Thomas was not ready to sleep quite yet.

He finally located the goggles and snorkel set he’d gotten for his birthday a few years before and donned them quickly. He was already wearing his bathing suit and a t-shirt. It would be cold, but he’d be okay if he just focused. Searching some more, he located a pair of blue rubber flippers, which he put on his feet. Thomas had learned he could do almost anything with his mind if he tried hard enough.

He slipped out his bedroom window again, and, after making sure there was no one watching him, he flew off into the night, soaring over the ocean.

It wasn’t long until he had located the funny thing that had caught his interest the night before, and he plunged into the chilly ocean to investigate. He floated for a few moments to get used to the temperature of the water, and then took a deep breath and dived under the surface.

The light produced by the moon and stars overhead was just enough to let him see what he needed to see. Something – something large and metal – was under the surface. He swam towards it, willing his lungs to hold the air that he so desperately needed.

As he got closer, he saw why the moonlight had been enough to see by. The object – whatever it was – was glowing. At first he thought that it was reflecting, but then he saw that it was actually glowing. He was so surprised by this that he paused momentarily and forgot that he was holding his breath. Then he realized that he needed air, and swam rapidly to the surface to gulp some more air.

’Glowing...’ he thought to himself. ’It’s glowing. What could be under the ocean that produces a glow?’

He racked his brain for a few minutes, trying to figure it out. The first thing that popped into his head was easily the most outlandish. ’What if it’s an alien ship?

Thanks to Micky’s love of old and somewhat cheesy science-fiction movies, he had learned about “aliens” from an early age, and so that was the first thing that he thought of. But he quickly dismissed it.

’There’s no such things as aliens,’ he told himself as he took a deep breath and dove back under the water to get a closer look. ‘ That’s just silly movie stuff.’

As he got closer the thing became more distinct. He saw that it was large…probably larger than a car…and made of metal. The metal part he discovered by touching the object. He also noticed something else strange. The closer he got to it, the more it glowed. And when he touched it, for a brief second, to see what it felt like, the glow intensified. Immediately, he pulled his hand back, shocked. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, he touched it again. The glow intensified and changed colors. Where before it had glowed a pale white color, it now glowed blue…and then green...and then red. Before Thomas’ eyes it was glowing all the colors of the rainbow.

Before his mind could comprehend why or how, it told him he needed to breathe again, and so the boy sped to the surface again and breathed. There, he calmly assessed the thing, trying to figure out what it was. When he’d calmed his heart again, he took a deep breath and dove once more.

This time, he didn’t touch the object. Instead he just studied it from as close as possible. Then he spotted some strange markings on the side of the object. At first, he wasn’t sure what they were. But he determined that they must be some sort of writing.

’Maybe it really is an alien ship!’

Tentatively, Thomas reached out and felt the grooves that had been made in the side. At first, he saw nothing. But then, images popped into his mind. And the markings seemed to make sense.

’...To study and to observe...’he read. ’We mean no harm. We come with no ill intentions. We will remain secret.’

The inside of the ship had a pale purple light that illuminated all portions of it. Alarms, bells, whistles, beeps, and shouts could be heard.

“I’m not sure how much longer we can stay afloat!” a tall man shouted. His hair was a dark brown, and his blue eyes were almost shockingly bright against his very pale skin. When he turned to face his commander, the long appendage of his tail spun behind him, whacking his control panel.

“Just keep working on it!” a shorter woman near him shouted. Her hair was dark and so were her eyes and skin. Two furry ears stuck out of her hair, twitching nervously as the six fingers on her left hand worked furiously pounding buttons and turning dials.

“Keep trying to get power Makel!” another voice shouted. This one came from a man who stood in the center of the room, directing things. His hair was a light brown, and his skin was pale – though not as pale as the first man’s. His ears looked essentially normal, except that they extended into a blunt ending a few inches above his hair. “We’ve got to stay afloat. Earth can’t find us yet!”

Thomas let go of the side of the ship – he was sure that was what it was now – and sped to the surface to get air. He barely had time to asses his situation and the images he’d just seen, when he felt a sensation. Fear rushed through him, and he could almost hear a scream in his ears.

Cursing slightly under his breath, he took to the air and flew as fast as he could back to shore. If he didn’t hurry, he’d be in trouble.

His mother had discovered he was gone.

Back to main page

Back to part eight

On to part ten