Evacuation of the Aliens
I
A tropical cyclone formed on the east coast of Peru has been flexing its muscles on the vast sea.
Somewhere near this cyclone, two people on a meteorological airship named “Polar” are tracking a group of strange signals from the universe. The screen in the airship shows powerful streams of particles are breaking through the earth’s magnetic field and hitting the land continuously near the thirty-ninth parallel of north latitude.
Right now Captain Chu Tian-xiong and his wife Zhao Yu are glued to the screen, which is the terminal display of a telemetry system. They are observing changes in the cosmic signals while inputting them in the processing system, and being so concentrated in working, thus they are utterly unaware of what has been going on right above the ocean. When the alarm on the airship sounds, they raise their heads at the same time; and then on seeing the weather chart on the sounding radar’s display, they both get shocked: the cyclone is approaching them with an overwhelming power.
A vertical lightening bolt strikes the sky ahead the airship on the left. Chu Tian-xiong is standing on the control platform, with his face as stern as been cast in iron. He is very tall and has a pair of bright piercing eyes. Though he is not quite about 35 years old, yet he has gained the worldwide fame as a climatologist. His wife Zhao Yu is a young climate researcher who has enjoyed huge esteem and respect at the World Meteorological Organization. They both are extremely interested in abnormality climate studies. Ever since they got married eight years ago, they’ve made frequent expeditions to the South Pacific. For this particular expedition, they’ve been out working above the ocean for seven months. During this trip, Zhao Yu by accident picks up a stream of particles from somewhere deep in the universe. However, just at the time when they are able to confirm that this is a type of cosmic communication signal, the strong tropical storm strikes and their airship is caught in the hurricane.
At the altitude of 6, 000 meters, the airship is suddenly out of control.
“Tian-xiong, Look！” Zhao Yu says while pointing to the screen, “Our airship is flying to the northwest.”
“Ah—” Chu Tian-xiong finds something suspicious in this abrupt flight direction change and his eyes pop out with surprise, “How could it be possible that an out of control airship is flying against the wind？”
They are not sure how long they’ve been fighting against this wild wind. However, when there are stars twinkling in the sky, they realize that the airship starts to lose speed after an abrupt motion of the control stick, and all the pointers resume working. Chu Tian-xiong bounces up and jumps on the control panel. “It’s back to normal！”he cries out with pleasant surprise. Zhao Yu comes by and leans on him, with tears sparkling in her eyes. The airship starts to descend. As it is approaching the land, Chu Tian-xiong tries to locate it on the map, and the result turns out to be greatly astonishing: the airship has flown across half of the earth and is landing at the intersection of 85°E and 39°N！
This is the heart of Taklimakan Desert in western China！
II
Both Chu Tian-xiong and Zhao Yu are startled. When the meteorological airship lands gently on the sandy ground, they see a group of Aliens with big heads and long legs standing in one line. The head of them, who is dressed in a titanium-magnesium suit, addresses to them in the human language, “Humans, welcome to the Noke Star Earth Monitor and Control Center！”
Despite the Aliens’welcome, they get off the airship and walk under the escort of the Aliens through a brightly lit avenue to an open area. Here they find an amazing night scene of colorful lights, and the humid air around makes it impossible for them to believe that this is the interior of a desert.
Zhao Yu walks after her husband timidly. She dares not look right into the Aliens’green bulb-like eyes, and so she cannot help but getting closer to Chu Tian-xiong. As a young female scientist, she has never doubted that there exist other civilizations on other stars in the universe; but she had never imagined that there would be an Aliens’flying disk base on the earth, which would appear all of a sudden right before her eyes. Human beings have had numerous and varied types of satellites launched into the universe, yet why they’ve never identified that the Aliens are right here？ She glimpses at the Aliens from time to time, and finds that they are so alike that they all seem to have been cast in the same mold. Her heart beats very fast when she sees their rhombic big heads and leathery skin. But when she puts her eyes back on Chu Tian-xiong, she finds that he is smiling and doesn’t seem to worry at all. This makes her feel reassured and at ease.
The long corridor is blocked off by a luminescence gate. The chief Alien opens the gate and gives instructions to his fellows to leave Chu Tian-xiong and Zhao Yu alone. As soon as Chu and Zhao step in, the gate is closed all of a sudden. They feel that they are surrounded with darkness. Then after a few seconds, they see in front of them a huge screen on which there’s the image of the universe: the nine planets in the solar system are continuously moving in cycles. Among them the blue earth that is wrapped with atmosphere is most eye-catching. On the walls to their right, there are the drifting continental plates, which are taking on the scene from 230 million years ago, when the super land mass started to break down. While they walk ahead, they see a clear biological evolution chain in the crystal cabinets that have been extended along the wall.
Suddenly Chu Tian-xiong loses his footing and they feel like falling into the darkness at the same time. They are caught off guard by a feeling of zero gravity and nearly have a blackout. When they reopen their eyes, they find themselves already in a round hall, in the middle of which there sits a white-haired old man.