# 10 - Dangers of Sound Sleeping - The Hijacking-III

Willie had no idea what was he supposed to do with USEA – unpronounceable silly extinct animal.

Neither had Rick any idea how was he going to spot a spaceship.

Even Jupiter was clueless how would he find an earth man.

While entering the earth’s atmosphere, the space ship lost a vital part. This was the personality-sensor which had the information about the earth man Jupiter was supposed to hijack. Instead it had fallen off the ship.

This personality-sensor was the very same something that had hit the old man’s bedroom window a night before.

*******************************************************************

Jupiter had been traveling for the last forty three nights and forty two days. He had entered the earth’s atmosphere only hours ago, and was looking for a quiet uninhabited place to land. He pondered over this question for half an hour before he reached any conclusion.

Jupiter had decided. He was flying over Indian Ocean now and the nearest land from the ship was Antarctica.

He flew to Antarctica and landed his spaceship on a clear stretch of land. He could see some human settlement in the distance but he couldn’t care less. He had always considered humans to be safe.

Due to another bizarre coincidence Willie and Rick were staying together in the same house.

Right when Jupiter landed his space ship, Willie and Rick decided to explore the place.

It was evening now. They must have walked for fifteen minutes when they saw a cluster of lights in the distance. It was probably like 50 meters from where they stood.

Jupiter decided to inspect the extent of damage to his space ship.

Willie and Rick got a little closer to the space ship. They were still at a safe distance of around 30 meters from the ship, and were hiding behind a small block of ice.

The cluster of lights had changed into a weird structure now. This structure was elevated, and was supported on three legs. They had never seen anything like this before. Everything was very quiet there and then a small door started to open. The door landed itself on the outside of whatever this structure was. They thought something would emerge out from the door.

The possibility of someone emerging out of the door still hadn’t occurred to them.

Just then a small figure appeared from inside and stood at the door. It looked around and then simply started to inspect the surface of this weird structure.

Willie had never seen a USEA before and Rick had never seen a space ship before. Neither had any idea how the two looked like. They opted for the most convenient route.

Willie Cash had found his USEA.

Rick Shaw had spotted a live spaceship.

Jupiter was very disappointed to find that personality-sensor was no longer attached to the space ship. He thought it must have certainly burnt away while entering the earth’s atmosphere.

Just then he got aware of human presence in the vicinity.

Jupiter had spotted a human being.

He knew who he was supposed to hijack now. But he was unsure of one thing. There were two men and he was instructed to hijack only one. In the absence of personality-sensor he had no way to find out which one. He decided to hijack both of them; one of them would certainly confirm to the personality-sensor back home.

Willie and Rick were of course oblivious of Jupiter’s plan.

They both got back to the house. They were super-excited and happy that what scientists and researchers take decades to do they had done in a day and that too within just hours of landing on Antarctica. They were free of their research obligations now.

Now that they were done with their one-day research not only they were left with lot of time but lot of money too. With this too-good-to-be-true knowledge they had their dinner and went to have the soundest sleeps of their lives, one which they would remember for a long time to come.

At one in the night Jupiter came to their rooms and packed them in green sleeping- cylinders. They were so fast asleep that none of them realized they were being hijacked by a USEA.

When they woke up after forty-three nights and forty-two days they were not on earth anymore.


© 2007 Ankur Shanker
Archives