Jimmy LarsonWhen James “Jimmy” Larson joihe army, he dreamed of fighting for his try, of proteg it from enemies within and without, of being a hero and a protector of this try, his state, his city, and his family, of having adrenalin-fueled gunfights, and appreciative pretty girls. Maybe his dreams were on the simple side, but they were his, and he had no iion of apologizing for them.

  When assigo Area 51, a top-secret base, he expected a busy schedule filled with cssified missions, advaech, and sightings of the advanced phat started the UFO urban legends. He didn’t believe the UFO theory. Earth was the only p in the os with life on it, and until he met an alien and shook its hand, he had no iion of ging his worldview.

  Yet tonight was going to be different. It was a night that would shake the foundations of his worldview, and he would never fet.

  The base had been bustling tely. There were more security drills, secret discussions among the higher-ups, and a growing uhe sight of white-coated stists rushing in and out of buildings revealed their worries.

  But tonight felt different. As Jimmy patrolled, he noticed there were far fewer people around. The base seemed to hold its breath, waiting for something. The straemosphere put Jimmy on edge. He sensed a ge was ing.

  As Jimmy walked the perimeter of Area 51, he felt the cool, crisp desert air. It was a calm night, with only the sound of sand shifting in the breeze. Sing the horizon, he adjusted his night vision goggles, looking for movement. The base was on high alert, though he didn’t know why.

  In the southeasteror, he felt something stra was like aric charge in the air, but different. It started with a gentle approach, going almost unnoticed, but its strength grew with each passing minute. He thought it was stati all the equipment on the base, quite on in the desert.

  A strong sandstorm kicked up, and the air became thick with swirling sand. As the wind howled and the sand shed at his skin, his vision blurred, and he had to cover his nose and mouth with his scarf to stop breathing in the sand. The storm was relentless, testing the limits of his endurance. He was thankful for the night vision goggles that protected his eyes, despite not improving his ability to see through all this sand.

  Hours ter, in the endless storm, he spotted a mesmerizing light show through the sand-filled air. Blue, green, and especially purple fshed in the distance. Mesmerized, he fot the harsh ditions for a brief moment as he gazed at the light show. It was beautiful and reminded him of the Aurora Borealis he saw on YouTube, but eveier and more colorful. He even thought he heard ss of singing, but he dismissed them as a figment of his imagination.

  Then, without warning, the lights and sounds vanished, and the only sound was the roar of the storm. He felt something indescribable pass through him, and his radio went dead. He pressed the buttons multiple times, but nothing happened.

  “Great, just what I needed,” he muttered, shaking it in frustration.

  Something smmed into his chest before he could react. The impact was slight but surprising. He grew dizzy for a moment and then colpsed onto the sand.

  When Jimmy awoke, the sun was mid-sky. He had a headache, and his mouth was dry. He sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes, brushing the sand from his face, and trying to piece together what had happehe sand that coated his face stung his skin and got into his mouth. Other soldiers were sitting up around him, looking as fused as he felt. A thick yer of sand covered everything.

  “What the hell happened?” A few feet away, Corporal Jenkins grumbled. He rubbed his temples and wiped the sand from his face.

  Jimmy stood unsteadily, his muscles protesting. “I don’t know, but it feels like someone drugged us. Where did all this sand e from?” Then he remembered the sandstorm and looked around, armed.

  The base was so quiet you could hear a mouse shere was no geor hum, chatter, or beepironics. It seemed like the sandstorm had silenced everything.

  Jimmy’s hand instinctively went to his side to grab his on. His heart skipped a beat when his M4 was missing. Panic swelled as he searched the ground for it in the sand. But he couldn’t find it.

  “Guys, my M4 has disappeared!” he shouted, armed.

  The other soldiers checked their gear. Fear spread as more soldiers realized their ons were gone.

  “Mine’s gooo,” Jenkins said, sounding anxious. “What the hell is going on here?”

  Sergeant Doyle, typically posed, looked visibly shaken. “This isn’t just any sandstorm,” he said gravely. “An unknown group is responsible for what happeo us. We must uand what happened and find our ons fast.”

  They exged worried gnces, feeling the reality of their situation sink in. In a quiet, sand-covered base, unarmed and fused, Jimmy felt fear creeping in as they searched for clues.

  When they reached the tral area, they found chaos. Frantic soldiers and stists rushed around, shouting orders and trying to operate equipment. puters were dead, radios were silent, and even vehicles wouldn’t start.

  “What’s going on?” Jimmy asked Sergeant Ruez, who was struggling to open a stuanually.

  Ruez looked up, his face a mixture of frustration and fear. “Everything is dead. All the eleics have been damaged. It’s like an EMP went off.”

  Jimmy’s mind raced. EMP? The bckout and dead eleics made sense. But what about the sandstorm, and where did it e from? And why?

  As time passed, details from st night emerged. ons were missing. Some soldiers were wounded by friendly fire. Others cimed to have fought unseen enemies who had caused their rades to fall unscious. Each rumor on base grew strahe most persistent? They had an alien captive in an underground facility, and it escaped.

  Jimmy scoffed. “Aliens? Really? , they’ll say it was Bigfoot.”

  But then he overheard a versatioween two stists that made his blood run cold.

  “We o taiuation before it escates,” one said urgently. “If the publids out that we have araterrestrial entity and it has escaped, there will be mass panic.”

  Jimmy’s mind spun. Alien? Could this be true? He always thought the Area 51 stories were myths and spiracy theories. Now, it seemed there was some truth.

  Jimmy snuto the underground facility despite the risks to uhe truth. He found an operance amid the chaos. His unease grew as he desded. He used a glow stick to light his way in the dark facility, which cast eerie shadows. He moved carefully, knowing he was trespassing iricted areas.

  Five floors down, he found a door with a small window. When he peered in, he saw a room filled with strange gadgets and signs of a fight. Equipment y scattered across the floor.

  Jimmy’s heart raced. They had held the alien here. But how did it escape? And where is it now?

  Returning to the surface, Jimmy spotted his CO, 2nd Lt. Harper, arguing with senior officers. Before approag, Jimmy waited for them to finish.

  “Sir, Private Larson is rep,” he said, snapping to attention.

  Harper looked at him wearily. “What is it, Larson?”

  “Sir, I think I found the holding cell where they held the alien. It looks like there was a struggle. What exactly are we dealing with here?”

  Harper sighed and motioned for Jimmy to follow him into a more secluded area.

  “Larson, what I’m about to tell you is cssified beyond top secret. Do you uand?”

  Jimmy nodded, his heart pounding.

  “We were holding a being of extraterrestrial in. It arrived at Nellis Air Force Base through a portal. We’ve been studying it for months. Last night, something caused a tremendous energy release. It was unlike anything we’ve seen before. This energy disrupted all our eleid allowed the alien to escape.”

  Jimmy took a mio process the information. “So, that energy killed all the eleics?”

  Harper gave a gloomy nod. “Yes. And we believe the alien may have had allies who used this energy to free it. Our priority is to locate the alien and its aplices before they cause further damage.”

  The senior officers assigned Jimmy to a search team. With ronic gear—passes and maps—they bed the desert fns of the alien or its rescuers. After that, they tasked different teams with visiting nearby settlements.

  The desert was enormous, and trag was nearly impossible without eleic equipment. Days turned into nights, and the tension mouhey had false arms from time to time due te individuals, either tourists or drunks. But they found nothing signifit.

  The top brass dispatched more teams to Vegas and nearby cities, including Reno. But the results stayed the same. The alien and his allies seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving behind chaos and mystery at the base.

  Staff Sergeant Jake HawkinsIn ten years in the Air Force, Jake Hawkins had seen strahings. But nothing pared to what went down at Area 51 on March 21, 2031.

  Jake had a reputation for staying calm in difficult situations. In tough times, people relied on his quick thinking and level-headedness. But that night, as he watched outside Hangar 18, he felt that something was very wrong.

  The first sign was the ued surge in wind force. Jake was used to the harsh desert ditions of Nevada, but this felt different. An odd energy filled the air as the wind howled intensely.

  “Thompson, have you ever seen anything like this?” Jake asked his fellow guard.

  “No,” replied Senior Airman Eripson. “Something’s off here, sir.”

  In the moments leading up to the storm, the sky dimmed, and the wind whipped sand into the air. Soon, it got so blurry that Jake could hardly see Thompson beside him.

  “We o get inside,” Jake shouted over the noise. “Looks like we’re in for a real sandstorm!”

  Fighting the wind, they rushed ihe hangar. As they caught their breath, Jake’s radio crackled to life.

  “Attention all persohis is el Emerson. Code Red is now in effect. All security teams are to report to their desigations without dey. Repeat: Code Red. Proceed to your assigned locations immediately.”

  Jake and Thompson exged worried looks. A Code Red meant a brea their most critical areas. Silently, they raced to their statiohe maximum-security instaltion.

  The base was on high alert for hours. Ihere was an eerie calm as the sandsted outside. Jake’s gut told him a massive storm was ing, not the sand kind.

  He was right.

  Two hours after the sandstorm started, all the base’s eleics failed. The lights flickered a out, plunging them into darkness. Jake’s radio went dead, and a shiver ran down his spine as he realized all his tech had failed.

  “Thompson!” he shouted. “We o che the prisoner!”

  They stumbled through the dark stairs and halls, ahe holding area, they heard shouts and shots.

  Jake lit a lighter as they ehe holding facility, and his heart stopped for a beat. Inside an open door, they found two unscious guards. The political prisoner was gohere was a trail of blood leading to the other stairs. Jake didn’t waste a sed and followed the blood trail. He rushed up the stairs and headed out of the stairway. Suddenly, he felt a light tap on his shoulder, grew dizzy, and everythi bck.

  When Jake woke, he found himself lying irance hall of the security instaltion covered in sand, his mouth dry. Around him, soldiers and stists were stirring and sitting up. All of them looked fused and disoriented.

  He stumbled outside and saw that sand coated the entire base.

  “Hawkins! Are you lost?” a voice called out. Captain Gloria Martinez, her usually immacute uniform now covered in sand, approached him. “What the hell happened?”

  Jake shook his head, still disoriented. “No idea, ma’am. A huge sandstorm hit us. I went to che the prisoner, saw signs of struggle, and followed the blood. When I came up, I bcked out. I’ve just woken up. It looks like all my equipment is down.”

  Martinez looked grim. “It’s not just ear. The entire base is down. Everything’s offline: cars, ptops, phones. No one reach us.”

  Instinctively, Jake reached for his M4 rifle, but it was gone. “Ma’am, my M4 is missing,” he whispered, trying to mask his panic.

  Martinez’s face darkened. “Everyone, check your ons!” she ordered. A chorus of worried voices firmed Jake’s fears—everyone’s guns were missing.

  “Mine’s gooo,” Thompson said, his voice shaking. “What’s going on?”

  Martinez ched her jaw, surveying the sand-covered base. “This is more than a sandstorm. Someone did this to us. We o find out what happened and locate our ons immediately.”

  As the seriousness of their situation hit Jake, a knot formed in his stomach. Area 51 was a military instaltion known for its high-level security. The idea that something could cripple it in an instant was nearly unimaginable.

  “What are your orders, ma’am?” Jake asked.

  “Right now, we o take stock of everyone’s whereabouts and assess the damage,” Martinez said. “Assemble a squad and start sweeping the base. Report anything unusual.”

  Jake nodded a off to follow his orders. As he searched the base, the extent of the disruption became clear. With teology down, soldiers and civilians alike struggled to adapt. The mess hall cooks were scrambling to make food without w appliahe medical team rushed to treat injuries and save medies that needed refrigeration, w without power. Researchers and analysts looked lost, uo access their data or tiheir work.

  Soldiers and civilians gathered in the courtyard, their faces etched with worry and fusion. In the ter stood el Frank Emerson, the base ander, his expressioermined.

  “Everyone, listen up,” Emerson called out. “I know you have questions, and I’ll do my best to ahem. Our base was hit by what we believe to be aromagic pulse around 1:00 AM st night. This pulse knocked out all our eleic devices.”

  Murmurs rippled through the crowd, but Emerson raised a hand, calling for silence.

  “At this moment, we have no outside unication or support,” he said, his voice steady. “We’ve sent soldiers on foot to tact our superiors.” He then began ting off on his fingers. “Our top priorities are:

  Secure the base.At for all personnel.Protect sensitive information.Locate the missing ons.”A shiver ran down Jake’s spine. He thought of the empty tai room and its former, sensitive oct.

  “We mao get a few she radios w, but their range is limited,” Emerson tinued. “Until we reach our superiors a more instrus, we’re operating on a o-know basis. I expect everyoo do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Dismissed.”

  As the crowd dispersed, Jake felt a tap on his shoulder. He turo see Captain Martinez.

  “Hawkins, I need you,” she said. “Follow me.”

  Jake followed Martio an unmarked building. He had passed it many times but never entered or paid much attention to it. Ihey desded a staircase into a dim corridor. At the end was a massive metal door beled “Authorized Personnel Only.”

  Martinez frowned as the keypad o the door failed to respond. With a sigh, she pulled out a key. “Looks like we’re doing this the old-fashioned way,” she muttered, then manually unlocked the door.

  Inside, file ets and shelves of folders lihe room. Martinez lit a glow stick, unlocked one et, and pulled out a thick file, handing it to Jake with anlow stick. “Read this. It’s time you uood the gravity of the situation.”

  Jake opehe file and sed the report. It detailed a young woman of unknown in they had captured fifty years ago. It included transcripts of her interrogations and the discovery of portals to other worlds, along with their locations in the US. The final dot described her escape attempt and her death during it. After her death, rge piles of equipment appeared around her body. Stists have been studying the items ever since.

  “This ’t be real,” Jake said, looking at Martinez.

  “It’s all real, Sergeant,” she replied. “And the entity we had tai night—the ohat escaped—is not just extraterrestrial. It’s called a Traveler, just like the previous one.”

  “A Traveler?” Jake asked, his mind reeling from the revetions.

  Martinez nodded, eyes gleaming with iy. “From what we know, Travelers have araordinary ability to move between dimensions. Think about that—different realms of existe our fiips! The Traveler we had in custody was the key—the key—to unlog that power for us. We weren’t just experimenting for the sake of knowledge; no, we were on the verge of mastering the ability to move across dimensions ourselves. Imagine what that would mean for the Uates!”

  Her voice rose, filled with urained passion. “We could go anywhere—explore realms no other nation could even dream of. By gathering knowledge and unimaginable resources, we could obtain teology that would surpass the rest of the world by light-years. We were on the cusp of being unstoppable. The true rulers of Earth. We had a ce to trol this world and tless others!”

  But then her expression darkened, voice turning to a bitter growl. “And now, that Traveler—our Traveler—escaped, taking with him all our hopes. Our future is ripped away. That single creature was the lyn, and now, because of this failure, we’ve lost the one ce to asd thtful pce at the top. If we don’t get it back, everything we’ve worked for will be for nothing.”

  Jake felt the ground shift beh him. His view of reality, purpose, and the world was being upended.

  “Why are you tellihis?” he asked. He worried about her iy and the moral implications of what she told him.

  “Because we need people we trust with the truth,” Martinez said. “Last night wasn’t a freak act or a terrorist attack. It was a rescue mission. Someone or something came to get our Traveler. And they used teology and skills far beyond anything we’ve seen.”

  Jake remembered the strange sandstorm and the sudden failure of all eleics.

  “So what’s ?” he asked.

  Martinez’s expression hardened, her voice steady but ced with a simmering fury. “Now, we prepare,” she said firmly, her tone anding attention. “Whoever took our Traveler isn’t just some random force—they know where we are. They uand our capabilities, and they’ve proven they bypass even our most secure defehat means ohing, Sergeant: this isn’t just a theft. It’s an act of war, a challeo our existence.”

  She leaned in, eyes narrowing as she spoke with the fervor of someone who refused to let go of a vision. “They know what we were trying to achieve. They uand the poere so close to harnessing. And make no mistake, Sergeant, they will use that knowledge against us. But this is far from over. No, this is just the beginning of something far rger—a battle for supremacy, for trol of dimensions beyond our own. And we ot afford to lose.”

  Martinez ched her fists, the frustration palpable. “We will not stand by ahem take what is rightfully ours. The dream isn’t dead. It’s been deyed. And now, we regroup. We fortify. We evolve. The Uates was destio lead not just this world but every world, and we will stop at nothing to make that a reality. We will gather our forces, Sergeant. The enemy may have stoleraveler, but they’ve lit a fire they ’t put out. We will find them, take back what’s ours, and when we do—there will be no stopping us.”

  Her voice dropped to a low, dangerous tohis is our war now. And we’re going to win it.”

  From his versation with Captain Martinez and other discussions with soldiers and stists, Jake pieced together what had happehey had been holding the extraterrestrial Traveler for months. In their pursuit of uanding his abilities, the stists studied him and pared the data from the previous prisoner with the goal of creating a serum or deviabling them to jouro alternate realms. The power outage disrupted the force field taining the Traveler’s powers. The base was breached, and the Traveler vanished in the chaos.

  Jake, seg the base and assessing the damage, k was just the beginning of something bigger. His world had ged forever, and he was right in the middle of it.

  In the days that followed, Jake learned about a whole new reality. As one of the few soldiers who khe truth about Area 51’s research, he was assigo protect their alien data.

  Over time, the base adapted, using improvised geors to power essential funs. A repair and rept project was underway, though deyed because of budget straints. The pulse had caused sting damage, wiping the puters aing all data. Once-bustling research bs now stood silent. Manual locks and guards repced the advanced security systems that had once safeguarded the base.

  Jake worked tirelessly, helping to catalog and secure the files that now held the ey of their alien research. His hands moved effitly, but his mind was far from the task. Thoughts swirled, trying to make sense of everything he had uncovered—the dimensions, the Travelers, the vast unknown that had once beeuff of myths. The more he uood, the heavier the weight on his sce became.

  It wasn’t just the magnitude of the discoveries that uled him, but the moral cost. As a soldier, his duty was clear: protect his try at all costs. They trained him for that; he had pledged to do it. But as he stood amidst this groundbreaking research, he couldn’t help but questioher the price they were paying for it was too high.

  Imprisoniient beings… subjeg them to experiments… Was this really about proteg the nation? Or had they crossed a lihat blurred patriotism with something darker? He wrestled with the tradi, caught between loyalty to his try and his deepening sense of unease.

  The fliawed at him. He had always believed in his mission, in the greater good. But now, every time he thought about that Traveler, locked up, used as a means to an end, something in him recoiled. Could he still call himself a protector, or was he plicit in something more sinister?

  A week after the event, Jake sat alone on the barracks’ rooftop, staring at the starry desert sky, still wrestling with his dilemma. The vastness of spaow seemed different, filled with wonder and danger.

  “Quite a sight, isn’t it?” a voice behind him said. Jake turo see el Emerson approag.

  Jake stood up, but Emerson quickly motioned for him to sit back down. “At ease, Sergeant. We’ve moved past formalities, haven’t we?” Emerson said with a grin. “Captain Martiells me you’ve hahe revetions about our work here very well.”

  Jake nodded slowly. “It’s a lot to take in, sir. I’m still processing it all.”

  Emerson ughed softly. “I know. I thought I was ready for anything when I first took and of this base. Turns out ‘anything’ still catch you off guard.”

  “What happens now?” Jake asked, a hint of uainty in his voice. “With everything we’ve lost…”

  Emerson looked at him, the moonlight cutting sharp lines across his face. “Sergeant, t. We learn. We prepare. This was the first move in a game we don’t fully ua.”

  He stood, brushing the sand off his uniform. “Get some rest, Hawkins. We’ve got a lot to rebuild. And this time, we’ll be ready for whatever es .”

  The few days were a blur of strategy meetings and debriefings. Jake sat through endless discussions while higher-ups scrambled for answers, trying to think up ways to prevent another i. They repyed the events over and over, pig apart every detail. But despite all the analysis, Jake couldn’t shake the feeling that they were still missing the bigger picture.

  After power finally returo the base, they gave him the responsibility of reviewing the surviving footage from the Traveler’s cell. At first, it seemed like just another muask. But after hours of watg, something caught his attention. His heart quied, and he leaned in closer to the s.

  Just before the power outage, the Traveler had been sitting in his cell, watg television. He was ughing—full, urained ughter—at an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. It was so human, so ordinary, that Jake could hardly believe it. This alien, with abilities beyond anything they could uand, was sitting there, enjoying the same silly cartoons humans had enjoyed feions.

  That sparked his curiosity, so he went back through earlier footage. It wasn’t a oime thing. The Traveler had ughed at cartoons on more than one occasion, with the same pure, unguarded joy each time. A no one had paid it any mind.

  But to Jake, it was signifit. It wasn’t just about what the Traveler could do, but about who he was. This wasn’t some emotionless being or a dangerous alien force—they were dealing with someone who found joy in the same simple things humans did. That was important. More than just an experiment, this Traveler had personality, and that mattered.

  Jake’s thoughts raced. This wasn’t just a detail to overlook. To him, it should’ve ged how the higher-ups viewed the Traveler. He wasn’t an “it”—he was a “he,” a being with thoughts aions, someone who could experience humor and joy. But no matter how much this struck Jake, the rest of the team didn’t see it the same way. To them, the Traveler was still just a tool, a subject to be studied, nothing more.

  But Jake couldn’t let it go. If the Traveler could ugh—if he could ect with something as simple as a cartoon—what else were they missing? What if they weren’t dealing with just a subject, but someone who could think, uand, maybe even reason? It wasn’t just about his powers anymore. There was something deeper here, something profound, and Jake khey were on the verge of ign it pletely.

  He rushed t it up with the team, trying to expin the significe of what he’d seen. Sure, it seemed minor on the surface, but to Jake, it was a bridge—a sign that, despite everything, there was on grouween them and the Traveler. That he found joy in something as mundane as a cartoon proved that the gap between them wasn’t as vast as they thought.

  But the team didn’t care. They listened, but the bnk stares told him everything. So the alien ughed—so what? That’s all they took from it. To them, it was just an odd quirk, nothing worth fog on. They couldn’t uand why Jake was so ed up in something that seemed so trivial. To them, the Traveler was still nothing more than an asset, a piece of the puzzle they o trol.

  A few days ter, el Emerson called Jake into his office. The el looked worn out, dark circles under his eyes from sleepless nights sihe breach.

  “I need you to be straight with me, Hawkins,” Emerson said, his voice rough. “What do you think about all this?”

  Jake hesitated for a moment, then spoke carefully. “I think we’ve been going about this the wrong way, sir. We’ve been so focused oraveler esg that we haven’t even sidered why he was here in the first pce.”

  Emerson leaned baarrowing his eyes. “Go on.”

  Feeling a bit more fident, Jake tinued. “We’ve treated him like a prisoner, a subject. But what if he’s something else? Maybe he came here for a reason—to make tact or to warn us about something.”

  Emerson was silent for a moment, fiapping lightly on the desk. Then, finally, he spoke. “You might be onto something, Hawkins. We’ve been so caught up in our own agenda that maybe we’ve been blind to the bigger picture.”

  He stood and walked to the window, looking at the desert night. “I’m putting together a ask force,” he said. “People who approach this with fresh eyes. I want you on it.”

  Jake felt a mix of excitement and nerves. “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

  Jake’s mind raced with flig thoughts as he left Emerson’s office. He’d always known Area 51 held secrets, but he hought he’d be at the heart of something that could ge the course of history.

  The world had shifted that night in March, and sitting uhe vast, starry sky, Jake realized he had ged, too. The universe was bigger, stranger, and more dangerous than he’d ever imagined. But as a soldier, he’d be ready. He had a feeling this was just the beginning of something much bigger.