Somebody Threw It

Somebody Threw It

by: Dennis R. Humphreys

There was biological warfare during the middle ages. It just wasn't called that back then. Get the diseased body, the one with the plague, put it on the catapult and heave it over the castle walls. If the fear of getting the plague out paced the fear of being slaughtered by the attacking forces than the drawbridge was dropped and the attacking army entered the castle. This more than anything probably contributed to the spread of the disease, for there were so many factions and various feudal entities at war with each other, and each lord wanting what the other had in an effort to become bigger, stronger and more powerful than the next, they constantly were waging war of some kind and size. It was easier to do this and starve them out than to lose your men in a direct attack or spend a lot of time waiting. Greedy people are impatient people.

However the practice remained. If you destroyed the infected there was less of a chance of the disease spreading so to simply give up because a diseased body flew over the wall most likely assured your death sentence. The practice also guaranteed an elimination of some of your own army but for some reason the leaders and practitioners of such things seemed to not worry about infecting themselves and in actuality rarely did.

Beware of objects hurled into your backyard unexpectedly, you may get more than you counted on getting.

The small town of Bristle Cone, New Mexico was a simple town of one hundred fifty two homes where seven hundred twenty one people lived. There was as small downtown with the necessities being sold there in the few shops had but most of what people needed were bought in the larger nearby town fifty miles away. Most drove there once a week to do their regular shopping.

Jack Lightfoot and his new wife, Maria, moved here a year ago to get away from the bigger city life. There were trade offs but the primary thing they wanted to escape was local government intrusions into everything you did. People seemed polarized on issues to the point the so called good Christians were no longer good Christians. You were fundamentally categorized, judged and shunned. People you had been friends with for twenty years suddenly de-friended you as easily as a click of a button on social media. They didn't think twice. It defied the idea of friendship and being Christian as mentally inept with the intelligence level of a homeless person's pile of crap.

They moved into an old ranch house on forty acres and planned on raising just a couple of beef. Maria wanted to raise vegetables and can things for the off season. They planned on living off grid as closely as possible. Jack had been an electrician where he met Maria who was teaching third grade kids. She didn't agree with what the Board of Education demanded her to teach so she left teaching.

The house they moved into was outside of town a little ways and was next to the people that had become their best friends since being there...Judd Pate and Lilly. Friday evenings they all spent together sitting down to a dinner one cooked while the other made desert. They took turns every week and it fast became a tradition.

“Hey guys, how are you doing?” Judd and Lilly asked as Jack and Maria came through the front door.

“Something smells good,” Maria exclaimed as she came into the house and immediately went to the kitchen to set the apple pie down she had made from apples she was growing in her back yard.

“I made a venison roast with roasted potatoes, turnips, carrots and collard greens,” Lily announced. “I know you guys like venison but I didn't know how you felt about turnips and collards.”

“I love collards and I love turnips,” Jack announced.

“Well, I'm not real big on turnips,” Maria confessed.

“OK, fuck you then,” Lily told her laughing. “I have yeast rolls I baked. I know that'll make up for the turnips for you.”

“Those yeast rolls you make are better than sex,” Maria commented.

“After dinner, we're going to have apple pie and ice cream out on the front porch so we can look at the stars. There's supposed to be a meteor shower tonight and it's clear out so we should see some good stuff,” Lily announce to everyone as they sat down to dinner.

A few glasses of wine and good company warmed everyone's heart on a Friday night and it began the weekend on a high note.

They ate their meal and enjoyed every bit of it, washing it down with plenty of wine. They stuffed themselves silly but got sillier with the drink. Finally Lily and Maria dished out the apple pie with an abundant amount of ice cream and retired to the porch to enjoy the rest of the evening.

“Great apple pie, Maria,” Lily commented.

“I second that,” added Jack.

“I'll third that,” Judd said, “I'm ready for seconds.”

“I wish one of those meteors would land close by,” Jack said, “do you realize how much money you can get for one of those?”

“I'd rather have a gold meteorite hit, from that stream of gold the sun put out a couple of years ago...what was it something like a couple of miles wide by forty miles? You know once it cooled off it came down somewhere as meteorites. Maybe have about a five hundred pound one put a small crater right in the back yard,” Judd wished.

“What! In my flower bed after all the work I put into it?” Lily slurred having a little too much wine.

They were laughing and about that time a streak of light passed by the house and hit the ground with a loud thud. There was a glowing mass in the small crater it left. The two couples stopped eating and just stared at each other not believing what just happened. They were dumbfounded and unsure that such a coincidence just occurred while they were talking about it.

Then suddenly they all put their dishes down at the same time and rushed to where the glowing rock was..

“This is incredible. I can't believe we were just talking about it and the thing hits the yard,” Judd said.

“Yeah right in the middle of my flower bed. It wiped out half my flowers1” Lily complained.

“Fuck your flowers. There's a lot of money sitting there,” Judd answered his wife.

“I'll bet you've got over a hundred thousand sitting there by the size of it,” Jack told them.

“Let's record the size and when it cools maybe we can get an approximate weight. It'll be a couple of days before it cools enough to maybe get it out of that crater. Don't rush into it so you can get the best deal,” Jack told the couple.

“We're friends and neighbors, I kind of feel this happened because we somehow made it happen. We'll split it with you,” Judd offered and Lily agreed.

“That's really great of you but it is on your property. It's yours to do with what you want,” Maria offered.

“Exactly...and we want to share our good fortune with you,” Judd replied.

* * *

“I don't understand it,” Jack told Judd as he was removing his old inverter to replace it with the new one he had. He had disconnected the old inverter from the batteries that were connected to his solar panels to attach the new one but he still had power coming from the original inverter.

“These things usually still have a charge in them for awhile that's why they tell you not to work on them until there's a full discharge,” Judd offered an explanation.

“Let me go inside the house and check,” he told his neighbor and then went into the house.

Oddly everything was still running...the refrigerator, the lights, the oven, the A/C...all the power users. Still there was plenty of power to run everything. He and Judd waited an hour and everything was still running. Jack turned on the television too in an attempt to drain the power. An hour later everything was still operating, the inverter was still putting out enough to run things.

“You're right...it doesn't make sense. Great for you guys but it doesn't make sense,” Judd told Jack puzzled with what was happening.

“Let's take the old inverter to your house and plug some things into it and see what happens,” Jack suggested, so they did.

“OK, this really doesn't make sense now. Your appliances are running off this inverter and it's not hooked into any power source. Am I nuts?” Jack told Judd.

“Where's the power coming from?” Judd asked.

“This may seem far fetched but the only thing different around here is that meteor sitting over in your yard. You don't think it has anything to do with this, do you?” Jack surmised.

“I can't see how. Tell you what. Let's disconnect my car battery and then try to start it to see what happens,” Judd suggested.

Judd climbed into his SUV after detaching the battery cables and turned the key. The engine started as if the battery were still connected.

“Shit...I don't believe it. It started without the battery. Hop in here and let's see how far we go,” Judd told Jack and they started down the road.

They drove and drove, making note of the odometer reading, laughing the entire way, not believing what was happening. At ten miles he stopped the car, then restarted it. It worked. At twenty miles he restarted the car and it worked. Finally at fifty miles it wouldn't start so he reattached the cables and they drove back a mile or so and he again disconnected the cables. The car started so they drove back home that way.

“I can't believe it. We were pulling power from that meteor for fifty miles. It must be a radius which would include all the homes and ranches in the area,” Judd reasoned. “If that's the case everyone will have free power, they just need to get an inverter to convert whatever power it's putting out to usable household current.”

“Let's stop at Stan's place on the way back. He's got a few panels online. Have him take them off and see if his inverter works supplying power,” Jack suggested.

Halfway home, they pulled off onto a dirt road leading to Stan Walsh's place. As they drove up, Stan was working on his tractor while his wife, Elise, was standing there talking to him.

“Hey guys, what brings you two out here,” Stan asked walking towards them and wiping his hands off.

“Hi Elise,” both men said leaving the car behind.

“I want to show you something Stan,” Judd said pulling Stan to the car. He opened the hood and pointed at the disconnected battery. Then he slid back into the driver's seat and started the car back up.

“Cool trick. How?” Stan asked.

“Do me a favor,” Judd said as he moved toward the house. “Disconnect your inverter from your batteries and see what happens.”

“Well, I can tell you what'll happen, I won't have any power in the house,” Stan told him.

“Just do it and see,” Jack taunted him.

They watched as Stan disconnected the wires from the back of the inverter then followed him back into the house and he flipped the light switch.

“See, I told you...” but when he flipped the switch the light came on. “What the hell?”

They watched as Stan turned on everything plugged into the inverter as it came on and laughed.

“OK, what gives? How am I getting power?” Stan asked his friends.

So they told him about the meteor and what happened with them so far.

“A fifty mile radius. You're your own power company. Are you going to sell the meteor's energy?” Stan asked.

“How would we monitor it?” Judd asked as Stan's wheels turned.

“No!” yelled Jack. “This was heaven sent you can't do that. It's free.”

Judd thought a minute and answered.

“Jack's right. Besides if we say anything and it gets back to the government or the electric companies, they'll be out here with a truck and hoist to take that meteor,” Judd told them both.

“Everyone in a fifty mile radius is going to be buying inverters to take advantage of this,” Jack laughed.

“And you don't think someone's going to question this whole area not using the electrical company anymore for power and not come out to look? When they don't see solar panels on everyone's place they're really going to get suspicious,” Stan brought up a good point.

“You're right,” Jack answered.

“I wonder how it does it and how long it'll do it?” Stan brought up another good question.

“It must be some sort of radiation,” Judd surmised.

“I wonder if it's safe? It's right in your back yard,” Jack told his friend Judd.

“But if we get someone in to check it out to tell us, some scientist of some sort, he's going to want to take it and study it in some lab somewhere. There goes our free energy. Hell, we'll never even see that meteor again,” Judd added.

“I know a couple of people that would do it under the table but they're going to want to take it too. Once you do that you lost control,” Stan told them.

“We could maybe move it away from everyone and bury it in a field somewhere but in the center of things so everyone gets to use it,” Jack suggested.

“Now that's an idea,” Stan told him. “It would be best to play it safe that way. I'll get my engine hoist. Have any idea about its weight?”

“It's probably a good five, six hundred pounds,” Jack estimated.

“Let's go now. Help me load the hoist onto my truck, Stan said.

The three figured the corner of Stan's eighty acres was probably as safe and as central to the area as they could get. They didn't want to put it on a piece of property someone else owned or they didn't know. They decided it to bury it maybe a foot underground to hid it.

It took the three of them a couple of hours to get it loaded it into the back of Jack's truck. Jack drove his truck separately while his two friends followed him. They unloaded the meteor a lot faster then when it was on the ground. Stan drove up to get his tractor with the front end loader to dig the hole for the meteor. An hour after that they were done.

“Well, that's done. Maybe we should test things before saying anything to anyone else make sure we didn't screw something up moving this meteor,” Judd suggested.

But everything was fine. The inverter at Stan's place was still putting out power without any source. It was still too strange to imagine.

A black car turned into the driveway and came towards the house leaving a big dust trail. The three friends stopped and looked wondering who it was.

“I never saw that car before,” Stan mumbled.

“Me neither,” Judd added.

“Guys...it looks like a government car to me. Be careful what you say,” Jack warned not trusting government people at all. Maybe that was a holdover from his Indian ancestors days when the government always gave his people the short end of the stick.

They watched as the man stepped from the car. He wore a dark suit that appeared fifty years behind the times with black wingtips, sunglasses, and a black fedora that was probably popular at the same time the suit was. He was tall and thin and pasty looking. He walked strange too, a way that seemed odd but you couldn't think of why.

“Good day gentlemen. I hope all is well?” he said seeming friendly enough.

All three men returned the salutation together.

“What can I do for you? You a government man?” Stan asked right off the bat. With that the man gave a short laugh.

“No...hardly. Just a traveler... you might say a harbinger of good will,” he told them putting his foot up on the edge of the porch and leaning on his leg.

“A harbinger of good will, huh? What does that mean? You a salesman?” Stan asked looking at him a little critically.

“Nothing further from the truth. I just stopped to see if you received our delivery yesterday,” he asked.

The three friends glanced at each other questioning what was just said but they said nothing to each other.

“Now what delivery are we talking about?” Stan asked getting more curious.

“I think you know,” the man retorted.

“If it's the delivery I think you mean it wasn't even here. It was at my place,” Judd told him.

“I know. I have instrumentation in my car that alerts me to the delivery site. Someone moved it to here,” the man told him. Stan was getting agitated realizing the man was talking about the meteor now.

“Look, just stop talking in circles here and spit it out. Who are you and what do you want?” Stan said agitated.

“Excuse me for being nebulous here. Sometimes we need to tread lightly. I am Zetar veGarton. I work for the Inter Galactic Energy Trust. We have been observing your planet for some time now and realize your energy needs are outstripping your ability to supply them. It won't be long before the inability to supply your energy needs will cause major problems...starvation leading to disease and other issues. My organization has decided to give your planet a helping hand...” he was saying but Stan jumped into his dissertation.

“Hold on here...do you expect us to swallow your load of crap, I'm hearing?” Stan asked him aggressively.

“Seeing is believing...you have one of our meteors we sent yesterday. You know what it is capable of...supplying your energy needs that is,” the strange man told them.

Stan wasn't sure what to say. He knew all about the meteor and what it could do.

“How long will the power from that thing last?” Jack asked, “and is it dangerous to be around for us?”

“It will last twelve hundred of your years, more than enough for your world to develop other energy. It is not dangerous to you, animal or your plant life. It is what you might call a benign radiation,” the man said, cocking his head as if in expectation for more questions.

“So why are you here?” Judd asked preempting Stan.

“Just a follow up to see if there were any questions. This is a test though. I'll be back in a week to see how things are going,” the visitor told them straightening his hat and preparing to leave.

“And then what?” Jack asked. The man turned around to answer looking over his shoulder.

“And then we send more meteors to your Earth, world wide, to take care of your entire planet's energy requirements,” he said continuing his walk to his car. He drove off while the three men watched him go.

“That was so bizarre,” Stan commented.

“Yeah, the energy companies are going to be pissed,” Jack interjected.

“What can they do? I mean worldwide...” Judd wondered.

The three prepared the others in town about their source of power instructing everyone to get inverters large enough for their homes to convert whatever power the meteor was creating into usable electricity. Amazon never saw so many inverter sales at one time but wait, that wouldn't be the end of it.

A week went by. Those using some solar power that had inverters unhooked them and were enjoying complete energy independence. Others, seeing what happened placed their orders and sat back for their deliveries.

The three men got together again and waited for the visitor at Stan's house. They didn't have to wait long, he got there in seven days, within five minutes of when he left and said he would be back.

“Good day gentlemen. All is well?” he asked leaving his car, dressed as he was when they last saw him.

“Hey there,” the three answered him in unison.

“I trust the meteor is working well and others have discovered its benefits?” the alien asked.

“Everything is going well. What I want to know is when you send all these other meteors to this planet and they take care of all our energy needs, what are the electric companies and the governments going to do? They pretty much run everything. They aren't going to be too happy, Stan asked him.

“No, they won't be...not initially, but if they're smart they will redirect the money saved into other programs to improve the planet and even use all the excess energy we will create to expand your planetary infrastructure,” the man told them.

“Yeah that's the operative word...smart. No one's ever accused the government people of being smart yet they point at the rest of us and say we're too dumb to figure out what's best for us,” Jack answered.

“Alright then gentlemen...if there are no further questions I have to get going. It's going to be a busy week. Meteor showers will begin tomorrow night and will last five nights until get all our meteors out. It's going to be quite a light show at night during that time so be prepared,” the man said getting back into his car.

They watched as he left, not expecting to see him again but wondering exactly what the energy companies and the governments were going to do when they realized what they had. They couldn't possibly confiscate all the meteors that dropped. Once people realized what their capabilities were it would be difficult to do anyway.

For the next five nights three couples sat on their porch and watched a night long exhibit of lights as the meteors fell to earth.

“I wonder how they managed to drop all these meteors?” Jack put the question out to Maria, Judd and Lily.

“I guess they drop them like bombs from their spaceships,” answered Maria. That was as good a conjecture as anything.

New Reports of how many meteors dropped around the world reported nothing else. Government people and government experts all had theories and ideas, some were down right stupid.

Anyone with an ounce of sense knew this was not a natural phenomena. It was too wide spread, too large and too ordered to be anything but contrived by a higher intelligence yet all levels of the public sector blamed it on whoever they had gripes with. Some said it was from global warming, others said it was the opposite party that did this to somehow gather more votes. How?

Within a fee days after the last meteors fell reports began hitting the Internet about the objects generating energy. Reports came in about using inverters to channels the energy into a usable form. Sales of inverters went through the ceiling which government denials went out about the objects being a source of energy with warnings they were contaminated with alien viruses.

In an effort to stop the unfolding energy independence revolution that was happening, governments worldwide began purchasing inverters to end the supply. A bill was being applauded in the United States to make it illegal to own an inverter without proof of having solar panels but then sale of solar panels increased for the free energy would more than pay for them quickly.

Within weeks of attempted control over the meteors and some confiscation, people experienced even for a short time the incredible dynamics of free energy. There were companies that suggested full confiscation of inverters while having their own system of inverters in place to dole out energy to the populations so they could meter it and bill for usage. Their profits would sky rocket. People would not put up with this and they even burned and blew up the office buildings of such companies suggesting it. There was mayhem worldwide. Governments could not control it and police didn't want to since they were consumers using energy. Military was told to go door to door to confiscate inverters but homeowners retaliated. They used guns when they could and when they couldn't they made homemade bombs and used knives and baseball bats to keep their inverters.

This was a worldwide phenomena. A few of the smaller governments toppled within six weeks others were showing the strain of it soon afterwards.

“It's unbelievable what's happening but I expected it would,” Stan told his two friends standing on his porch. They all had taken to arming themselves as there were rumor the National Guard was called in for a door to door search for inverters. Some of the guardsmen refused to be a part of the search feeling it would lead to revolution tantamount to what England had been doing with their search and seizures in the colonies that let to the American Revolution. They planned on fighting.

A black car drove up the driveway. It appeared to be the alien guy again.

“Good day, gentlemen,” he said stepping from the car.

“What brings you back? Is it to look at all the mayhem you guys created down here with your free energy?” Stan asked, stepping down from the porch.

“Something like that. You Earth people have always had a problem governing yourselves unless you're completely dominated and told what to do. This even points out some of the problems. On one hand you have governments controlled by career politicians that guard their profits closely, keeping their citizens in the dark while you have people that want to be self governed that don't know how.

Here we can offer all the energy for free that you need and with that a host of other things. This was just a taste. It's obvious the world's population wants our free energy and that's what we're prepared to offer you plus much, much more.

Anyway, over the next five days look to the skies. You'll see quite a light show,” the man said as he went back to his car.

“Another meteor shower then?” yelled Jack after him.

“No an invasion,” he smiled and then got into his car and left.