The dude ranch is hosting a rather dysfunctional family for the week. The brothers, Mark and Anthony, are about to show their disregard for everyone including their father. Their step-sister, Rachel, thinks she's a witch. When she sees Brianna transport a handheld device back to Orion she mistakes Megan and her friends all to be high level practitioners of the craft.
An alien spaceship was shot down over an obscure area of Australia by a US commanded Star Wars satellite. What the recovery team finds inside this alien craft may literally be the end of the world. Who knows - it might even be the end of the entire solar system. Scientists working deep in an ultra secret underground base in a place known as Dreamland are trying to open these devices unaware of the dangers inside.
The alien craft is so large the recovery team can't move it. To complicate things anything that uses electricity fails after being exposed to the alien craft and the mysterious devices for any length of time. The men working to move the alien craft become ill but there's no good explanation for it.
A handful of humanoid aliens survived the crash but they don't speak English and now they are also being held deep inside an underground ultra high security hospital at Dreamland. Only the survivors of the crash hold the secret to the strange black devices. What Megan and her friends do will decide the fate of not just the world but the entire universe!
To make things even more interesting a famous movie star arrives at the dude ranch on very short notice. Megan doesn't know a famous alien monster movie star is arriving until she looks up and sees the helicopter circling the farm early one morning. She asks her grandma Martha who tells her, "It's Julianna Skii," who's taking a week off from her current production to come spend a week with them on the dude ranch. That's not just a movie star, it's Brianna's most favorite movie star!
That's not all because there's a black mysterious UFO that follows Orion back to the farm. Who are they? What do they want?
I didn't intend for the novel to be much over 120,000 words in length but it's so jam-packed with things going on I felt to remove any of the action and story would hurt the overall enjoyment of reading the story. I know it's going to cost quite a bit more than the others but I feel that once you read the story you will feel it was well worth it. It sets the stage for the action and huge revelations that will follow in upcoming episodes of The Adventures of Megan Martin.
From Chapter 8 "How do you like your eggs?"
Listen to the author read this excerpt in MP3 format.
The girls were sound asleep and did not hear the rooster crow in the morning but what they did hear was the sound of shotgun blasts coming from the backyard.
"Jumpin' slimy toads of Phargus!" Megan yelled as she leapt from her bed, pulled the curtain back, and looked toward the back yard. "What in the world is going on out there?" Megan saw the chickens running and flying around the chicken pen and several of them had found their way outside of the pen running for their lives.
"What's going on?" Brianna asked stumbling, not yet awake, as she took a position beside Megan.
Megan shook her head. "I don't have any idea but the chicken pen gate is open."
"Did I hear gunshots?" Kat said yawning and looking toward the window at the foot of her bed where Megan and Brianna were standing. She got on her knees in her bed and looked out the window. "Oh great!" she said shaking her head. "The chickens are out!" Of course the chickens being out wasn't the problem since they usually let them out during the day anyway but Kat wasn't fully awake.
"Something's out there and I'll bet grandma is out there with the shotgun after what ever it is!" Suddenly Megan bolted from the room barefoot and in her nightgown. She ran down the stairs headed for the backyard.
Brianna and Kat looked at each other for a moment then ran after Megan nearly knocking May down in the hallway on the way out the door. "What's going on? I thought I heard shots!" May asked grabbing at Brianna's shirtsleeve.
"Grandma has something caught in the hen house!" Brianna exclaimed as she ran.
May paused to see Tahnina standing in the doorway to their room with a puzzled frightened expression on her face. "It's all right, nothing to worry about. It's just grandma. She's killing something in the hen house with her shotgun, I expect." May sighed then yawned and returned to her room and fell back on her bed. *
* "What is it, grandma?" Megan yelled as she entered the chicken pen to find her grandmother standing poised at the door with her shotgun ready.
"There's some kind of varmint up there in the ceiling." Martha pointed with the barrel of her shotgun. "Egg thieving little varmints is what they are! There was two of them. One of them ran off into the south forty. I shot at it but must have missed. The other one climbed up there in that crack between the boards."
"Raccoon? Opossum? What?" Megan asked. "What is it?"
"I never saw anything like it before." Martha shook her head.
Megan looked down at the ground to see the impression of the invader's footprints in the soft dirt where the chickens had been scratching for food. "Uh, what did these egg thieving varmints look like, grandma?" Megan asked fearing the worst.
"Little gray things about this high." Martha held out her hand about four feet above the ground. "Big black eyes."
Megan gasped slapping her right hand over her forehead. She moved her hand over her mouth then put both hands on her cheeks wondering what to do. Her left hand trembled as she reached for Martha's gun. Pushing the barrel down toward the ground, Megan said, "Don't shoot at them anymore, please. I can get him out of there."
Martha looked at the broken eggs all over the inside of the hen house. "I'm not going to be able to fill my orders today, I can see that!" Martha exclaimed waving her left arm in the air. She watched as Megan approached the chicken nests under the crack in the boards where the creature was hiding. She made a face as she felt something slimy squish under her bare feet but was afraid to look to see what it was. The smell of the chicken coop was a mix of dust, chicken poop, and ammonia and it made her eyes water. She glanced to the right to see one of the hens clucking at her, refusing to leave her nest.
Megan reached out and placed her hands on the roosts in front of the nests and made a face since every one of them was covered with mostly dried chicken poop from one end to the other and there she was with her bare hands and feet dressed in her night gown.
"Someone's going to pay for this," Megan whispered under her breath as she climbed.
Peeking into the crack beside a loose board she saw two big black eyes staring back out at her. "Come out of there now before grandma blows you out of there," Megan insisted as she pushed the loose board up out of the way. *
* "Be careful, Megan! That could be some kind of rabid wild animal!" Martha warned as she saw the little gray head appear in the hole between the boards. "Rotten little egg suckers," Martha muttered under her breath about as mad as she had been in awhile.
"It's all right, grandma. I know what it is," Megan reassured her grandmother.
Brianna pushed in beside Martha glancing at her shotgun as she did. She watched as the small gray thing with big black eyes and broken egg goo all over it crawled out of the hole in the ceiling and Megan helped it down to the ground.
"What in the world is that thing, Megan?" Martha asked. "Looks like some kind of mutant animal."
Megan stood there holding the little alien android's hand. "Yeah, Megan, you better watch out. You might get something contagious from touching that thing." Brianna giggled placing her hand over her mouth trying to contain her emotions. Martha glanced at Brianna noticing her lack of surprise at seeing such a strange creature.
Kat just shook her head. There stood Megan barefoot in the chicken poop and broken eggs with one of the little alien androids all covered with egg, chicken poop, and dirt.
"All right, Megan, you have some tall explaining to do." Martha unloaded her shotgun and backed away from the chicken coop door allowing Megan and the little android to exit.
"Yeah, Megan. I want to hear this one myself," Kat giggled.
Martha looked at Kat recognizing the same reaction that Brianna had given. "I have a strange feeling you girls have seen these little creatures before," Martha remarked.
Kat wiped the grin from her lips just long enough for Martha to pass by then nudged Brianna. "This should be interesting," she whispered.
"You think this is so funny! Well, I have news for you. You two can just go find the other one," Megan snorted as she walked the little android out of the chicken pen into the chicken yard. "I'm not the one who put these guys in here but you can bet your bowl of oatmeal I'm going to find out who did!" Megan barked the words at Kat and Brianna as she walked toward the house. "I can make about four guesses and I bet one or two of them are guilty," Megan continued nodding her head, mad enough to throw things.
