Last Thursday


White puffy clouds sailed lazily across the deep cerulean sky that hung over Washington. Colonel Roy Campbell sat behind the wheel of his BMW, faint jazz music playing in the background, as he drove home. The late afternoon sky was beginning to fade to darkness, and it would be at least another hour of driving before he would reach his destination. He left behind piles of paperwork that evening so he could go home and relax. Watch a movie, have a beer, eat a quiet TV dinner, and sleep.

Sleep.

His car rounded a street corner, and sped on. He blinked as a bright light, probably from a passing truck, shone in his eyes.
Then, he was home.

Home.

*

The telephone rang as he sat in a daze on his recliner, glued in front of the television watching re-runs of I Love Lucy. He grumbled, stirring from his drowse, and lifted the receiver to his ear.
"Hello?" he mumbled.
"Hey Roy, that you?"
It was Jim Mayer, a retired Colonel. They frequently fished and discussed governmental matters. Campbell kept him up to date on the happenings in the Pentagon.
"Hello Jim. Yeah it's me."
"Ya sound a little funny, everything alright?"
"Yes," Campbell sighed, "just drowsy. Haven't been sleeping well... something's been troubling me."
"Troubling you?"
"Yes."
"Well, what's the matter?" Jim's voice was hoarse. Probably just got back from a night jog.
"Jim, something happened to me last Thursday when I was driving home."
"Go on."
"I had a couple of miles to go -- I looked up and saw a glowing orange object in the sky, to the east! It was moving very irregularly...suddenly there was intense light all around me -- and when I came to, I was home."
Silence.
"What do you think happened to me?"
"I think you've flipped your wig Roy," was the response.
Roy smiled, changing the channel with his free hand.
"I suppose so. I haven't gone back to work since, and I know there's piles of paperwork for me to be filling out. I scheduled an appointment for a CAT scan. I haven't been feeling too well."
Jim was silent for a moment, then, "Stress maybe."
"That's probably a good diagnosis," Roy replied. "I've been filling out paperwork for weeks... Anyway, enough about me, what did you call about?"
"Oh, just wanted to let you know I got those new tackles in the mail today."
"Great," Roy said. "I need to get out of this house or I'll go crazy. You free tomorrow?"
"I'm always free Roy. See you at the lake at five?"
"You bet."

*

"The biometric data is ready for assimilation by GW."
A stout, middle-aged man sat with his hands placed atop a cane which he held between his legs.
"How was the abduction?" the second gray-haired man asked as he sat at a computer inputting information.
"Went off without a hitch."
"You wiped his memory, correct?"
"Of course. We left a few fragments, but not anything he could make any sense of."
"Give me the MO disk and I'll insert the data into GW when I go down to the lab."
The man with the cane hobbled over to the workstation and set the disk down on the desk.
"Campbell scheduled a CAT scan. He probably thinks he's crazy."
"He should. Those procedures that were done on him are very tiring on an old man's body. And mind as well."
The gray-haired man at the workstation slipped the disk into his pocket and smiled.
"The S3 program is already going smoothly, and it has barely even begun."
"Yes, even though he doesn't know it, the good Colonel will be our first successful digital life form. He should feel privileged."
"He will," the man with the cane grinned, "in due time."

-zynth