Cosmic Persistence

Yerneley was a rather rotund, five foot eleven inches, green-eyed Zeta Reticulan with also a scar starting on his right cheek and crossing over diagonally and ending above his left eye and another scar that was cane-shaped in which the ‘hook’ started curving to the right on his right shoulder and the base going down and then ending at the top of his left ass cheek. Both of these scars were unfortunate birth marks, and Yerneley knew they stood out but he didn’t care. Currently, Yerneley had been in New York City to pick up some lunch and then he found a no-windows stairway where he warped out onto his ship. Yerneley’s ship was a dark grey and somewhat reflective ship, though at the moment was cloaked so Yerneley couldn’t reveal his ship, and was shaped like a fat badminton shuttlecock and contained of three floors that from top to bottom included the living quarters, the subject and airlock area, and an engine room with four engines with a raised panel in the center that opened the bottom of the ship. On the bottom of the ship was four landing pads and the compartments they were in followed by numerous sensors on the edge of the bottom of the ship, a compartment for the ship’s ray. On the outside of the ship on the top floor right outside the control room was a window shutter that could be opened and closed and by the left and right side of that window were two more shutters each containing laser machine guns and one large concentrated laser in the middle, when it became necessary. Inside the ship, the control room was connected to a main central circular hall in which a bathroom was out to the right, followed by a bedroom, an entertainment room with a flat screen TV, couch, game console, and surround sound, a sort of conference/teleportation room where Yerneley went inside a clear tube in the middle of the room for holographic conferences and teleporting in and out of his ship, a mini hallway to the edge of the ship that contained a ladder embedded into the wall of a ship, a kitchen, and then finally back around to the control room. The second floor contained a room within a room where that room in the middle was the examining room in which there was a chair with arm and leg restraints and beside it a chair and table with three needles - one to extract blood, one to insert environmental conditions and the last needle as an antidote to any allergic reaction. Just as Yerneley sat down with his meal, he heard a soft but bass-y tone coming from the conference room, so he went to it, pressed a few buttons on the raised panel beside the tube to open it and then stepped inside as the clear door closed behind him.

“Hello, Yerneley,” it was Paxy, Yerneley’s boss, a rather slender but sharp, piercing blue-eyed, and well-dressed Reticulan.

“Hello.”

“Was I disturbing something?”

“No, why should it matter anyway? I came as quickly as I could.”

Paxy squinted her eyes, “Well, anyway, I’ve come to tell you you’re grounded and I want you to report to the nearest base as possible.”

“What’s happening?”

She squinted her eyes again, “Please?’

“I’ll send some signals as soon as possible, I just want to know.”

“It’s the Navills, they are now recently becoming as difficult as possible and now they played a lot of cards and now a lot of races are at war, for short. And, I, of course, want to keep this battle as close to home as possible.”

“But you know me and my ship are capable.”

“I am not debating this with you, Yerneley.”

“I’m not either, I’m just simply pointing it out,” Paxy purposely sighed aloud for Yerneley to hear, but Yerneley continued, “I’ll try and see what I can do, but I can’t promise anything with all the new heated tension about our relations with the humans.”

“I have heard of this,” Paxy’s signal tore her hologram in the tube for a second as she then struggled a bit to maintain balance, “All I can say now…is…stay safe,” she pressed a button on her transmitter as her signal was cut.

Yerneley sure knew that the situation didn’t look good, but he didn’t want his food to get cold, so he exited the tube and went back to finish his meal. Once he was finished, he pressed the button, entered the tube, and then said, “Hello, this is Yerneley Zunteley, number three nine two under subcategory NT three one ten, requesting a place to ground…Hello, this is Yerneley Zunteley, number three nine two under subcategory NT three one ten, requesting a place to ground…Hello, this is Yerneley Zunteley, number three nine two under subcategory NT three one ten, requesting a place to ground…”

“Hello, Yerneley, this is James Burley, I can tell by your signal that you’re quite a ways away, but we are happy to take you, however, while you’ve listed a lot of things, I need to know who you’re under,” a cheerful male voice said on the other line.

“Paxy.”

“Paxy…Paxy…ah ha. I see here, she said it clear that she just needs you grounded here.”

“Yes.”

“Now, we’re down in Maryland, and we have the front and top entrance to our main hangar, which do you prefer to land in?”

“Top.”

“Sure thing, I just need you to send your ship’s dimensions to see if we can fit you in the top.”

“You got it,” Yerneley swiped on the inside of his tube to a file and dragged it into a white circle on screen, “Should have it now.”

“Hold on, I’m hearing the dimensions out loud…all right we can fit you in. When can we expect you?”

“Very soon if I make a jump.”

“I’ll see if I can get the doors to open, it might be a while, but I’ll buzz you when they’re open.”

“All right,” Yerneley swiped what was on screen to the side, exited the tube, and then went to his bedroom to grab his laptop and then onto the couch in the entertainment room that was conveniently placed next to the conference room. For the next ten minutes, Yerneley didn’t do much productive things on his laptop, but once he heard that tube buzz, he went across the hall to the control room and then asked, “Ship, pilot above to the signal I am receiving from the conference room,” sure enough the ship jumped above the signal, “Now, slowly, but smoothly, lower yourself into the hangar,” the ship followed and then Yerneley swiped his touchpad on the control shelf that was extended into the ship as the shutter opened and he turned his ship around the hangar and then found a good spot in the corner, “Ship, keep the sensors active and alert me if I am landing on something or not,” Yerneley piloted his ship over to the corner, swiped again on his touchpad as the ship’s bottom landing pads extended as he then lowered the ship slowly down onto the hangar’s floor. He swiped once more on his control room touchpad and then got up and went to his bedroom to get his suit on. For whatever reason, whenever Yerneley was around military or government humans, he was required to wear his work suit. His work suit was a tight, pale green suit that covered most of his body except his head, hands, and feet and it opened and closed in the back but also had a belt for Yerneley’s holster on his right side. Yerneley also had to wear his work shoes, that were less a pain in the ass to put on, but once he got everything on he crossed into the main hallway down the ladder to the bottom entrance of his ship to the panel that opened it. Once he descended the ramp outside, told the panel inside to close the ramp in which it did and then turned to be greeted by a man in uniform along with another young one by his right side.

“Well, hello there, Yerneley, I’m James,” the older one greeted.

“Hello.”

“Well, we have a room for you.”

“Not needed.”

“What do you mean? What if you are not close and we need to buzz you?”

“Then give me a buzzer.”

There was a pause, but then James continued, “I’d really appreciate if you room with the boys here.”

“Unless Paxy handed off me as one to be under anyone in this base’s orders, I’m rooming in my ship, did she?”

“No, but you’re grounded, there is no need for the ship.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t leave.”

There was another pause, this time longer than the one before, “Then I need to clamp you down.”

“Go ahead.”

“Does this mean you won’t help around?”

Yerneley sighed, “No, it means I don’t have to necessarily follow all orders.”

James looked to a couple of his men a little ways across base, whistled to them as they came and then requested, “Get clamps for this Reticulan’s ship,” the men both nodded as they went off and then James turned to Yerneley, “I’ll be right back with a talkie.” James went off to the office building behind him and opened the door and searched the second drawer in the desk, closed the door behind him, and then came back to Yerneley with a walkie talkie and Yerneley accepted it from him and then James stated, “Now, I am not the one in charge here, but I can let him know you’re here and you have one now,” he outstretched his hand, “Nice to meet you, Yerneley,” Yerneley outstretched his hand and shook James’s and then both returned their hands to their sides.

“I’ll make sure to rush if I’m radio-ed.”

“More like, jiggle to it,” the young one beside James remarked.

“Brent!” James ridiculed, “Say you’re sorry.”

“Sorry.”

“Now, get out of my sight,” Brent headed away from James and Yerneley, and then James turned to Yerneley, “Sorry about him, I thought he was getting better.”

Yerneley nodded lightly and then returned, “Nice to meet you too,” he saw James reply in a nod as they both turned away from each other, with Yerneley going back to his ship, seeing a few men clamping down his landing pads. Yerneley got under his ship and pressed under it making a panel descend from the bottom of it. He entered the code for the ship’s ramp to open and then got on and walked up it, entered the code on the panel of the bottom floor for the ramp to close into his ship, and then went up to his bed to get undressed and then casually redressed and then to the entertainment room where his laptop was. Yerneley didn’t know how long he’d be grounded to how frequent he’d be buzzed, but had some confidence in not sitting around waiting and actually wasting time away on his laptop and game console. Yerneley did keep the walkie talkie close at bay, but until dinner it wasn’t buzzing at all. Yerneley didn’t feel like putting effort into dinner since he made just a bologna sandwich and a lot of snacks afterwards. After dinner, this time Yerneley just gamed until he thought it was a right time to take a shower, with of course, the still inactive walkie talkie close at bay. After the shower, Yerneley winded down with some binge streaming, a break from it with chocolate chip cookies and milk dessert, and back to a bit more streaming, teeth hygiene, and then bed with some white noise in the background, since Yerneley could not go to sleep at all with complete silence.