others had gathered around Bob, making notes of what he was doing. They were deep in conference as he sat down, exhausted by all of his efforts.
The man in the suit remained on his mobile telephone, and whilst he continued talking the rings began to rotate slowly. There were three of them, and they seemed to resemble a very large gyroscope. The whole contraption made an eerie sound, which was quite unnerving as the rings began to pick up speed. There was also a bit of static electricity building up in the room, which increased as the power built up in the equipment.
Sparks arced between the rings as they picked up more speed and the air between them started to distort. The rings were now spinning very quickly, so much so, that they had caused what appeared to be a bubble of energy. The bubble was only small at first, but as the rings continued to gain in speed it began to gaining in size. The eerie sound now began to modulate as the air within the bubble began to distort. Everyone backed away slightly as they felt the energy bubble begin to suck the air out of the room. Some pieces of paper that had been sitting on a nearby desk floated into the air, travelling in the direction of the bubble, and then as they neared it everyone looked on in amazement as they suddenly disappeared!
It might have been an astonishing spectacle, but the contrast could not have been greater than that of the room across the hallway. Inside everything was quiet, and nothing seemed to have happened for what Reggie thought was an eternity.
"What time is it?"
Heather looked at her watch.
"It’s nearly two o'clock!"
Reggie felt as though they had been sitting here forever, and he was growing increasingly worried about his uncle. Heather shared his thoughts, and his frustrations, even though she had done her best to calm him down.
The monotony was suddenly broken by the opening of the door, as one of the soldiers entered the room. He gave them a disapproving glare, which made them feel even more uncomfortable.
"When are you going to let us go, and where have you taken Bob?"
Heather stood up demanding an explanation. But before he had a chance to answer, another soldier entered the room. He whispered something to the other soldier, who seemed very pleased with his information.
Heather winked at Reggie, signalling that she was going to try something. The soldiers momentarily had their backs towards her, so she crept forwards grabbing an arm. With the flick of her wrist she sent the first soldier off balance, and he fell onto the second. Then Heather quickly grabbed hold of Reggie’s hand as they both made a dash for the door. He could not believe it, and nor could the soldiers - perhaps she was not so vulnerable after all!
They managed to get through the doorway, and ran across the hall in search of Bob. The soldiers were right behind them, as they burst into the main laboratory. From that moment on, everything seemed to happen in slow motion, as they located Bob standing by the row of equipment. Everyone stood there open mouthed, as Heather grabbed hold of Bob's arm, and dragged him towards the window.
The soldiers were right behind them, and as the man in the pinstriped suit reached for his revolved, Heather suddenly changed direction as he cut off their escape route. She could now see the revolver in his hand, and fearing that he was about to fire, dived for cover.
A shot suddenly rang out just missing them, but in her efforts to get out of the way, Heather got caught up in the strengthening force of the energy bubble. Bob looked on horrified as she suddenly disappeared, and quickly dived in after her. Reggie who had let go of her hand when the shot rang out stumbled as he watched his uncle disappear. On the other side of the room, Simon was trying to shut the equipment down, and as the energy bubble began to fluctuate, Reggie dived in after them as there was a surge in power followed by a bright flash of light and a loud bang as the room was suddenly filled with a cloud of thick black smoke.
Five
A Cloud of static energy engulfed Reggie, suspending his molecules between the gyrating rings as he was frozen in time for a few seconds. Everything was such a blur that he did not know what was going on. One minute he had entered the laboratory with Heather, who had grabbed hold of his uncle, the next as a shot rang out he had watched them both disappear into a bubble of energy. Now having followed them he had expected to emerge on the other side of the room, but he did not know where he was.
The bubble was in fact, a vortex which had opened up within the room and unbeknown to him, he was shifting into a slightly different dimension. All of this, combined with the strange looking equipment was a million miles away from his science lessons; in turn he was now a million miles away from the laboratory and the Grange!
It felt just as though someone was running a live current through his veins, as he fought for his breath, and for a moment he thought that he had been shot. Reggie’s chest felt tight, and he was finding it hard to breathe. His lungs felt as though they were going to burst, as there did not appear to be any air in the room, and he was almost hoped that he would find himself running into the arms of one of the soldiers. All he could see was an intense light, as he searched for his uncle. But when the light did eventually clear, he had the shock of his life - for there standing in front of him was this small grey creature with big dark eyes!
Reggie fell to his knees, as the static charge continued to ripple through his body. He felt terrible and almost passed out with the unearthly sensation. The creature moved a little closer, as he rolled onto his back, his vision blurring as it stood over him.
Whatever had just happened to him was like nothing that he had ever experienced before, and he felt totally disorientated. However, the creature was very real, even thought it looked like something out of one of the science fiction movies he liked to watch.
Perhaps he had received an electric shock, and had lost consciousness. It almost felt as though he was on the set of a B-movie, and it all felt very weird particularly when the creature spoke to him.
"Hello.”
A strange voice suddenly appeared in Reggie’s head, which he initially put down to the electricity, which was still tingling through his body.
“Don’t be afraid.”
There it was again, and Reggie looked round to see if there was anyone else in the room.
“I'm not going to harm you.”
Reggie looked up at the creature, which appeared to be smiling at him!
Perhaps the previous couple of days’ events had been preying on his mind and he was dreaming. He closed his eyes hoping that when he opened them again he would find himself back in his bedroom, and everything would return to normal. But, when he did open his eyes, the creature was still there.
Reggie thought about his uncle - he had found it quite amusing at first when his mother had received the telephone call, but now it did not seem quite so funny anymore. He suddenly began to realise what a traumatic experience it must have been for him.
Although Reggie really liked his uncle (who had been acting as a father figure whilst his own father was away) he had not been convinced by his story. The thought of being abducted by aliens sounded ridiculous, and yet here he was!
Reggie stared up at the creature, terrified at the thought of being experimented on. He tried to get to his feet, but his legs felt a bit wobbly and he stumbled, banging his knee on the floor. The creature moved back as he finally got to his feet.
“Uncle Bob!”
Reggie called out for his uncle looking round the room, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"Who is this Uncle Bob?"
The voice returned, as he looked at the creature.
“Are you trying to communicate with me?”
Reggie knew that sometimes alien creatures were portrayed as being telepathic. It smiled at him again, and he began to realise that his hunch may be correct. This was certainly getting weirder by the moment!
"Uncle Bob!"
Reggie tried again, but there was no sign of his uncle or Heather anywhere. Normally he would have been in a state of blind panic by now, as he was not particularly brave
. But he remained surprisingly calm, for someone in his situation.
The creature shook its head.
"So I'm here on my own then!"
The creature nodded, and Reggie began to feel very uncomfortable.
Where were they?
Reggie kept looking round the room, which was mostly constructed out of a shiny metallic substance that was warm to the touch. It almost felt like water, being smooth without any sharp edges at all. There were several observation windows scattered about, and as he peered out of one of them, he could see the Earth and Moon being bathed in bright sunlight. A type of glass was filtering the sunlight, which did not hurt his eyes. Reggie was relieved, as he remembered being told never to look directly at the sun, as it could cause permanent damage. They were a bit watery though, but more out of fear than anything else.
"My name is Larn, and I’m a trainee engineer!”
The creature announced proudly.
Reggie realised that Larn was probably not that much older than himself, and it looked as though this was his first mission too.
“My name’s Reggie, and I’m still at school!”
He said disappointedly.
“And will be for some time yet!”
He added, wishing that he was old enough to leave!
Larn looked at him realising how young Reggie really was, even though he was considerably taller than himself.
"You know you've given me quite a shock."
Reggie thought that it was nothing compared to the one