Area 51, Nevada
Half an hour later Okun was leading a small group of interested parties into the Scout Ship.
"Come on down," said Okun, having descended the ladder that had been installed decades previous. "Watch you step," he said, as David followed him down. Behind David was Shepard, who practically jumped down, eager to see the alien vessel up close.
Unlike human vessels, but understandable considering the bio-mechanical suits the aliens wore, the inside of the Scout Ship had a very organic and biological feel, littered with curved surfaces, even the floor wasn't entirely flat.
Okun gestured to the two matte black assemblies that hung from the ceiling near the rear of the Scout Ship's main compartment, "Obviously the ship was designed to seat three." He then shrugged a bit, as the assemblies didn't appear to have any sort of seat, "Though how they sat on them, I don't know."
He then lead David and Shepard to the front of the compartment, where the pilot's "seat" hung from the ceiling in front of a control console, the surfaces awash with the familiar descending seemingly random pattern that David had decoded from the alien signal.
"You see these gizmos flashing?" asked Okun, pointing to the lit screens. "We've been working around the clock, trying to get a fix on all this crap. Some stuff we figured out right away." He gestured to a control cluster to the right of the main control console, "This, we're pretty sure, is the life support system." Okun then coughed slightly, point in to another bit of alien grebble.
"Doctor?" asked Shepard.
"What?" asked Okun, stopping his explanation.
"That pattern looks familiar," said Shepard, pointing to the green and black screens in the center of the control console.
"It does," said David, setting his laptop bag down and removing his PowerBook from within. He opened it and showed the still running countdown detection program. "See this pattern here," he said, pointing first to the screens on the Scout Ship, and then to the similar one on his laptop's, "They're repeating sequentially, just like the countdown signal." He showed the two screen side by side to Okun, "They're using the frequency for computer communications. It's how they're coordination their ships."
"Huh?" said Okun, looking from the laptop to the control console screens and back. "You know, you're really starting to make us look bad."
"So, how does it fly?" asked Shepard, wondering how long it would be before Okun was called away for some important thing or another.
"Oh, these," said Okun, flipping a switch, and causing the two control devices to pop out and unfold, "Are used to control the craft."
Shepard gestured, "May I?"
Okun looked confused.
"I'm a pilot," explained Shepard. "While I'm not exactly an expert in flying alien spaceships, I'd like to get a close look at how this one is controlled. Never know when I might need to do so." He then gestured out the front windows, at the obvious hatch in the wall above the entrance ramp to the hangar, "A feeling I'm sure is not unique here."
"Right, right," said Okun, stepping back.
Shepard stepped in, and tentatively sat on the edge of the seat assembly, and grabbed the two control sticks.
"We know enough to have it in standby mode," explained Okun. "It'll hover without the supports now that it's got power, but those controls won't work."
"You can lock out the controls?" asked Shepard.
"Yeah, we've actually got a fairly good understanding of their computer system, despite not being able to power it up. Seems my predecessor studied enough of the systems to use them to influence our own computers, likely in an effort to get terrestrial computers to a point where they can interface with the alien ones. It's not perfect, but we've got pretty much the entire command code for all of the controls here in the cockpit accessible from our own computers," explained Okun. He then gestured to David's laptop, "If I gave him the drivers, he could likely turn all of it on and off with that."
"Good to know," said Shepard.
Just then a technician stuck his head down into the Scout Ship, "They got one! They got one alive!"
"Jesus," said Okun. He then turned to David and Shepard, "You'll be okay by yourselves … Dave, Jimmy?"
"What, you think I'm going to stay here with a live alien incoming?" asked Shepard.
"I'll be fine," said David with a dismissive wave, as both Okun and Shepard rushed out of the Scout Ship.
Just before Okun got up the ladder he stopped, and shouted back at David, "Don't touch anything."
"Why is everybody telling me not to touch anything?" asked David, remembering the previous evening and the meeting in the Oval Office. He then, impetuously, patted the top of the control console before him. He then noticed the fifty years worth of dust, and who knows what from before the crash, that had transferred to his hand.
A few minutes later Okun and Shepard, followed by a bunch of medical technicians, rushed out of the elevator, down the hall, and out into the disguised hangar full of junk, pushing a gurney.
"Right here," said Captain Hiller from the bed of the pickup, "I've got it in the back of the pickup."
Okun and Shepard watched at the medical techs and soldiers unloaded the parachute wrapped alien in the bio-mechanical suit from the back of the pickup. While Okun was looking forward to examining the alien with modern medical technology, Shepard was more interested in what the alien knew. While he was sure that, given the impetus, Hiller would be quite capable as a pilot of the Scout Ship to deliver David's inevitable virus to the Mothership, Shepard wanted to fly the mission, and sucking out the alien's soul seemed like the best way to go about getting to that point, short of killing Hiller.
Unfortunately, Shepard was distracted when Russell Casse, who's RV had followed Hiller into Area 51, and his plea for help for his son, "I need a doctor."
Shepard looked up from the parachute enveloped aline bio-mechanical suit, "What?"
"I need a doctor, my son is sick," said Casse.
"I'm not exactly a doctor, but I think I can help," said Shepard. He then turned to Okun and demanded, "Promise me I get to be a part of the examination."
"What?" asked Okun, quiding the airmen to pull the alien onto the gurney.
"These aliens might be magical, and I'm the only magical expert here, so, promise me. I get to be a part of the examination," explained Shepard quickly.
"Yeah, yeah, you'll get your part," said Okun distractedly.
"I'll hold you to it," said Shepard. He then turned back to Casse, smoothed his jacket, and gestured to the RV, "Lead on, McDuff."
"It's Casse, Russell Casse," the older man said, and lead Shepard into his RV. "It's my son, he's sick, and after the destruction of LA, we kind of lost his medicine," explained Casse.
The pair climbed into the RV. "Okay, now, I have to warn you, this won't seem normal," said Shepard, reaching into the inner pocket of his jacket.
"I survived an alien abduction a decade ago, and the destruction of LA, I think I can handle something abnormal," said Casse.
Shepard summoned a wand from the Demense, though it appeared to the others as if he came from thin air. He then pointed it at Russell and said, pointedly, "If you get hysterical, I'm stunning you." He then left a shocked Russell and Miguel at the front of the RV and proceeded to the back, where Alicia Casse was administering to Troy, who had a fever.
Shepard cast a basic diagnostic spell, "Okay, this is something I can deal with." He then cast another charm, one that boosted the boys immune system. He then extracted a plastic vial from one of his jacket pockets, examined the label on it, shook it, and then presented it to the girl, Alicia. "This is a potion, think of it as a special kind of medicine. In about half an hour, your brother … he's your brother right?"
Alicia nodded.
"Okay, in half an hour, he's going to wake up. When he does, I need you to give him this potion. It tastes like strawberries, so it shouldn't be a problem. After he takes it, he's going to be sleepy, let him sleep. If he's not fine by the morning, come find me, and I'll see what else it wrong," explained Shepard.
"So, it's a cure?" asked Casse.
"There's not cure for diabetes," insisted Miguel.
"Yes, and no," said Shepard, standing up. "There is no medical cure for diabetes, at least not yet. This cure, though, isn't medical, it's magical."
"So, you just happened to carry a cure for diabetes with you?" asked Miguel.
"You're skeptical, that's good," said Shepard. "But yeah, I carry a whole bunch of potions with me. While the potions are inside the vials, they don't age, which means I can keep a lot of them with me. I've got potions for damn near anything and everything. When you've got a niece and nephew and a couple hundred kids, you tend to plan ahead."
"Wait, a couple hundred kids?" asked Miguel, Russell having dropped into the chair behind him, spent from the stress of that last day.
"Think of it as sort of an experiment," said Shepard. "To see if magic is limited by numbers or just genetics. It's genetics, and since I'm magical and rich, I thought I'd make a few hundred more witches and wizards, increase the gene pool a bit."
"Wait, witches and wizards?" asked Miguel.
"Magic is real," said Shepard with a dismissive wave of his wand. "How hard is that to accept once you've accepted that aliens are real?" he asked, echoing his question to the Levinsons earlier.
"I guess, well, I've seen aliens, I've not seen magic before today," admitted Miguel.
Shepard waved his wand again, and with a silent spell, cleaned and organized the RV. He then pointed his wand at a book on the small table, turning it successively into a rabbit, a tea kettle, a miniature flying broom, and then returning it to a book. A final spell, this time spoken with the words "expecto patronum", summoned an ethereal glowing dragon, which flew around the confines of the RV, before settling on Shepard's shoulder, before fading into nothingness.
"See, magic," said Shepard.
"That … was … awesome!" said Miguel.
"Let's a good reaction," said Shepard with a smile. He then tucked the wand into one of the pockets of his jacket, tucked his thumbs under the lapels of his jacket, and look smug, "Well, if you'll excuse me, I have an alien to go biopsy."
"Biopsy?" asked Alicia, still crouched next to her brother. "Don't' you mean autopsy?"
Shepard shook his head, "Nah, it's only an alien autopsy if it's dead. That lovely space invader is quite alive, though if I'm not quick, I might miss its untimely demise." And with that, he disapparated, leaving a stunned, or unconscious, Casse family behind.