Letters From an Alien
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We lifted off from Placerville’s small airport about an hour ago. No horizontal takeoff, just a vertical lift. The crew includes six of Alyadille’s countrymen and me. I have been assigned a double stateroom, which is really two crew bedrooms made into a single room. Each crew bedroom has a five by five mattress, and my stateroom has two of these mattresses sewn together. My stateroom has been refurbished to include a taller door. All the overhead compartments have been removed, so the height of the room just inside the door is about six and one half feet. Opposite the door are the windows. The room becomes very short near the windows, just above the bed. Right now, all I can see is a black starry sky, with lights passing by like shooting stars on a summer’s evening. My crewmates are Alkono (the captain) and Jarwen (the mate) and Anrwa, Rewyat, Mapwer, and Wiltan. The heat in this craft is just awful, probably one hundred ten degrees Fahrenheit. My stateroom does not have a separate heat control, but it does have a switch that allows me to fill the room with Earth’s air. When I do that, I can take off my spacesuit and swelter in peace. If I leave my spacesuit on, I can enjoy the air conditioning of the suit but I can’t move around too freely. Most of the time, though, I just sit in the easy chair and look out the window. What sights! Alkono knows the names of all the stars, but I am just awed by watching the universe pass by. I have been invited to join the crew in the main lounge this evening. I will put on a pair of shorts, a cotton shirt, sandals, and an oxygen mask and plod to the lounge. Walking is hard because the gravity in the craft is more than I am used to, perhaps a fourth again as much as we experience on Earth. I walk a little and I sit a little, and eventually I get where I am going. Everybody else in the crew has specific duties. I am not sure who does what just yet, but the instructions (in English) that were pinned to my pillow say my room will be cleaned on a regular basis and my mini-bar will be refilled several times during what I would call a day. I would like to tell you what time it is, but my watch stopped about the time of the liftoff and the small travel alarm I carry is just running through the hours wildly.
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About the Book
Jack Olsen is a dull but conscientious worker, a reporter for the New York Times, just after the melting of the polar ice caps. In 2030, Jack answers a message on his computer from Alyadille, who says it is writing from the fifth planet orbiting the star Eta Boötes. This answer is the start of Jack’s great adventures. He finds love and professional rewards as he researches the information Alyadille asks for and uses information it sends. Other members of his family, including his outspoken and brilliant sister Elizabeth, get involved with Alyadille and its problems, and Jack himself becomes a Principal Investigator in a project to validate a scientific paper sent by the Senior Scientist on V Eta Boötes. Is this entity real or is he just a "kook in Omaha" playing a joke on America’s most distinguished academic researchers? Jack spends many years not knowing the truth, but between 2030 and 2048 he assumes the entity exists and needs his help to save its old and scientifically advanced civilization. Then, in 2048, the visitors from V Eta Boötes arrive in America.
About the Author
Mary Carmen is a management consultant based near Cheyenne, Wyoming. She manages projects for information technology departments of large financial and governmental organizations, traveling from engagement to engagement with a Russian Blue cat, Fyodor. Ms. Carmen has worked as a computer programmer, programming department manager, systems analyst, and technical writer. Before studying computer programming, Ms. Carmen taught English in a public school in Georgia in the year that school integrated. Ms. Carmen received a B.A. degree in journalism from the Pennsylvania State University and an M.B.A. from St. Mary’s College of California.