of the title: man of the family, she showered him with insults, belittling Vic in front of friends and family alike.
In his head, her unending denigration continued. "You pansy, if they wanted you dead, you'd be a crispy bug stain on the desert floor."
Goaded into action, he crouched and poked his head through the opening for a quick scan. Inside, he discovered a large circular room that appeared to span the entire width of the ship.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, his heart skipped a beat. Three figures stood in the center of the large space. Victor was on their left. They weren't looking in his direction. Although, in the darkness he couldn't be sure.
Thinking of Neil Armstrong's famous words, he extended a trembling leg into the ship's main cabin. One small step, my ass .
Not comfortable with the thought of sneaking up behind unknown aliens, and unwilling to shout 'Here I am!' he turned left, planning to follow the curving exterior wall until the aliens acknowledged his presence. Or eat me .
Before Victor finished his third step along the curved surface, the entire wall—a full one-third of the ship's horizontal circumference—vanished. The view outside shocked him into momentary paralysis. Recognizable from any altitude, the brilliant lights of Las Vegas receded over a shrinking curved horizon. Looking down between his boots, Vic saw the black void of the Grand Canyon slide into view. Finding himself precariously balanced on a ledge miles above the surface, broke his paralysis. Launching backward, toward the middle of the ship, Victor landed gracelessly on his ass. He crab-walked a few feet farther before dawning realization froze him.
If the wall had vaporized, he'd have been sucked out. Vic didn't know their exact altitude, but he knew they were already well above an airliner's cruising level. Judging by Earth's curvature, they were gaining more altitude every second. Considering the contained pressure differential, he knew there must be something physical present. Either the wall had turned clear or a forcefield was in place.
Loath to let any gaff go unnoticed, his mother chimed in. "Sure, just sit there, pussy. I'm sure the big scary aliens are duly impressed."
Victor shook his head. He could practically hear the spittle flying from her pursed lips. Subvocalizing, he said, "Shut up, mother." Gathering himself and steadying his nerves, Lieutenant Croft stood and crept back to the wall. Looking down, he could see they had climbed above the atmosphere, reaching orbital velocity and altitude in the few moments it took him to clear the small room. Looking back to its opening, Victor recognized it as an airlock.
The acceleration must have been incredible, but he'd never felt the ship move. Somehow, this vessel's interior was disconnected from inertia. Thinking of how they'd pulled him into the ship, Vic realized the ship must also control gravity.
Looking over his right shoulder, he saw the three beings still hadn't acknowledged his presence. As far as Victor could tell, they hadn't even reacted to his graceless dismount of the imagined planetary-scale precipice. A walking thesaurus in the vernacular of her son's unending failures, his mother would've described that little foible as maladroit.
Shaking off the thought, he studied the figures. From his closer vantage point, he realized they were standing behind a console. Oriented toward the center of the wide clear wall, it was about four feet tall and topped with an angled curving glass. Like holograms in a science fiction flick, enigmatic three-dimensional multicolored figures floated over its surface.
In height and width, the three beings appeared to have the same proportions as a human. Each had two arms and two legs. However, Vic couldn't discern anything beyond that in the ship's dark interior.
The holograms seemed to respond to their manipulations, although it was impossible to tell what they were doing from this distance. He saw the center
In his head, her unending denigration continued. "You pansy, if they wanted you dead, you'd be a crispy bug stain on the desert floor."
Goaded into action, he crouched and poked his head through the opening for a quick scan. Inside, he discovered a large circular room that appeared to span the entire width of the ship.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, his heart skipped a beat. Three figures stood in the center of the large space. Victor was on their left. They weren't looking in his direction. Although, in the darkness he couldn't be sure.
Thinking of Neil Armstrong's famous words, he extended a trembling leg into the ship's main cabin. One small step, my ass .
Not comfortable with the thought of sneaking up behind unknown aliens, and unwilling to shout 'Here I am!' he turned left, planning to follow the curving exterior wall until the aliens acknowledged his presence. Or eat me .
Before Victor finished his third step along the curved surface, the entire wall—a full one-third of the ship's horizontal circumference—vanished. The view outside shocked him into momentary paralysis. Recognizable from any altitude, the brilliant lights of Las Vegas receded over a shrinking curved horizon. Looking down between his boots, Vic saw the black void of the Grand Canyon slide into view. Finding himself precariously balanced on a ledge miles above the surface, broke his paralysis. Launching backward, toward the middle of the ship, Victor landed gracelessly on his ass. He crab-walked a few feet farther before dawning realization froze him.
If the wall had vaporized, he'd have been sucked out. Vic didn't know their exact altitude, but he knew they were already well above an airliner's cruising level. Judging by Earth's curvature, they were gaining more altitude every second. Considering the contained pressure differential, he knew there must be something physical present. Either the wall had turned clear or a forcefield was in place.
Loath to let any gaff go unnoticed, his mother chimed in. "Sure, just sit there, pussy. I'm sure the big scary aliens are duly impressed."
Victor shook his head. He could practically hear the spittle flying from her pursed lips. Subvocalizing, he said, "Shut up, mother." Gathering himself and steadying his nerves, Lieutenant Croft stood and crept back to the wall. Looking down, he could see they had climbed above the atmosphere, reaching orbital velocity and altitude in the few moments it took him to clear the small room. Looking back to its opening, Victor recognized it as an airlock.
The acceleration must have been incredible, but he'd never felt the ship move. Somehow, this vessel's interior was disconnected from inertia. Thinking of how they'd pulled him into the ship, Vic realized the ship must also control gravity.
Looking over his right shoulder, he saw the three beings still hadn't acknowledged his presence. As far as Victor could tell, they hadn't even reacted to his graceless dismount of the imagined planetary-scale precipice. A walking thesaurus in the vernacular of her son's unending failures, his mother would've described that little foible as maladroit.
Shaking off the thought, he studied the figures. From his closer vantage point, he realized they were standing behind a console. Oriented toward the center of the wide clear wall, it was about four feet tall and topped with an angled curving glass. Like holograms in a science fiction flick, enigmatic three-dimensional multicolored figures floated over its surface.
In height and width, the three beings appeared to have the same proportions as a human. Each had two arms and two legs. However, Vic couldn't discern anything beyond that in the ship's dark interior.
The holograms seemed to respond to their manipulations, although it was impossible to tell what they were doing from this distance. He saw the center
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