The Scalian Legacy

It began innocently enough; a low hum in the early darkness of the Amazon. Even though the sun had only recently retreated from the sky, without manmade lighting to pollute the area, the darkness was stark and the stars were bright. Still, birdsongs, frogs ribbitting, and crickets continued uninterrupted through the change in clarity, until the low hum began. Then, as if the birds and insects knew something was amiss, their volume reduced to near silence. Marcelo walked over to Robbie, who had just stood up himself along with Jack.

“Voce ouve isso?” Marcelo asked Robbie in Portuguese.

“Yeah, I hear it,” Robbie replied. “It seems to be coming from the north.”

Robbie grabbed his night vision gear from out of his knapsack. Then, he and Marcelo left the campsite and moved towards a slope to the north in hopes of getting a clear view. Once they cleared the canopy, they noticed faint lights in the distance. Marcelo and Robbie were about as familiar with this portion of the Amazon as any humans, so the look of confusion they gave one another said it all. Robbie whistled to get the attention of the others.

Jack, Kenny, and Chris put on their headband flashlights and headed towards Robbie and Marcelo. As they joined Robbie and Marcelo, they could all hear the hum becoming progressively louder. It was coming towards them. Robbie peered through his glasses to see if he could get a decent look at the object. As it neared, Robbie could see it was nearly spherical, with dim lights of various colors located sporadically throughout its surface. It appeared to be only slightly larger than a giant beach ball, with a few small appendages dangling from the bottom. It seemed like a free-floating apparatus as it soon zoomed past the group.

Robbie motioned for the others to follow, and their pursuit began. They raced down the slope and quickly lost sight of the lights under the canopy. They followed the hum as quickly as they could through dense forest, tripping over roots and pushing vines out of the way. Just when it seemed as if the hum was going to diminish beyond recognition, it stopped moving. They continued in the direction of the hum, until they were clearly able to see the spherical object from which the hum was sounding. Robbie motioned for everyone to turn off their headband flashlights.

The object had stopped above an open area of the forest that was devoid of tall trees with only ferns, brushes, and some smaller boulders throughout. It then shot out a widespread light from its midsection, as if scanning the immediate vicinity. The light briefly displayed the beauty at the edges of the clearing, from the colorful vegetation to some scampering monkeys on the treetops. The five men stayed within the thickness of the forest as the object completed its scan. It then started to drift upwards and sped up. Within a few seconds, there was a small but bright flash as it disappeared.

The five men all continued to stare upwards, befuddled by what they had seen.

“What the hell was that?”

Chris was the first to break the silence. He was looking at the Amazon experts, Robbie and Marcelo, as he asked the question.

“Why are you looking at me?” Robbie said, shaking his head in disbelief. “How the hell am I supposed to know?”

“Eu não sei, mas estou deixando aqui,” Marcelo answered as he started quickly back to the camp.

“Marcelo, no, come on,” Robbie said as he chased after him.

“What did he say?” Chris asked the other Felder brothers as they slowly followed.

“He said he doesn’t know what it was, but he’s getting the hell out of here—and I’m with him,” Kenny replied.

“Well, that makes more sense than anything else I’ve heard on this crazy trip,” Chris said happily as he quickened his pace back to camp. “Let’s go home.”

Jack Felder finally chimed in. “Come on, guys. We’re just a couple of hours away from the dolphins.”

“Jack, you know I care about you, really,” Chris said, “and I know it’s been a rough last few months, but it’s time to pack this up. I will be fine living the rest of my life simply looking at pictures of pink dolphins.”

Jack didn’t answer, but he also didn’t bother to keep pace with the speeding Chris, who was all too glad to see this adventure come to an end.

After several minutes, Jack was the last to reach the campsite. It was a flat, mostly cleared area about twenty feet by twenty feet. The fire ring was at the center, with logs around it for groups to share some time together. The hammocks had their blankets laying on them and there were bags strewn around, with cooking gear still out from their recent dinner.

Jack saw Robbie, still pleading with Marcelo, who was ignoring him as he packed. Since both Robbie and Marcelo were hardheaded, it was a good thing they usually agreed on most topics; but at the moment, they were not on the same page.

Meanwhile Kenny and Chris were also packing and seemed quite content to be readying for a departure.

“So, we’re leaving?” Jack asked. “All this way—and now we’re leaving? We don’t know what that was.”

“Jack, dude, the thing was floating without any noticeable propulsion and then, oh yeah, it disappeared,” Chris challenged. “You want to take a crack at explaining what tech we have that can do that?”

“Okay, I can’t explain it,” Jack said, “but we still don’t know that it’s a threat.”

“Jack, you’re right, why don’t we ask it to go for a swim with us and the pink dolphins!”

Chris’s sarcasm made it obvious to Jack that his argument wasn’t going to make any headway with him. So, Jack decided to change tack.

“Kenny, what would Dad have said to us quitting on this? Remember our promise?”

Kenny snorted at his younger brother. “Oh no, you aren’t guilting me into staying. I’ve got plenty of other promises to follow through on before dying.”

“Yeah, we’ve heard how good you are at keeping them as well,” Jack shot back.

“Touché, bro.” Kenny kept right on packing. “While I’ve loved this trip down memory lane, it looks like three versus two to me, Jack, so it’s time to go.”

Jack went to his final option. “Or we can split up,” he said. “Marcelo can lead you guys home, and Robbie and I finish the trip.” Jack was now looking at Robbie, and soon the rest were as well, as they all stopped packing.

“I guess we may be able to do that.” Robbie seemed somewhat hesitant. “I know how to make it to the dolphins by foot in a few hours, and I can call Julian in Macapá on the Sat phone to send one of our spare boats. Still, we need to see if we have enough supplies to wait for the boat.” Robbie wasn’t thrilled with such a plan, but also didn’t want to cut off his little brother, Jack, who seemed to have progressed out of the depressive state.

“Are you two really that crazy?” Even though he wasn’t the eldest, Kenny always felt as though he had to be the mature one because Robbie was too impulsive and Jack admired Robbie too much. Still, Kenny knew the dynamics well enough to notice Robbie had provided the opening he needed to end this. Robbie was obviously not in favor of splitting up, and if he gave in, then Jack would come along for the ride. This was a good time to force the issue. “We are all leaving now and we’re leaving together. Splitting up is too dangerous for all of us.”

Robbie appeared to consider arguing the point, but held back, as Kenny had expected. Instead, Robbie began to help Marcelo.

“So, that’s it?” Jack looked at Robbie and could see he had lost his only ally. He sat down, seemingly resigning himself to the fact the trip was over.

Kenny sighed to himself. It would all be over soon enough.

The group silently began to prepare for a return. However, the tranquility of the moment was short lived. A bright flash briefly shone from the same vicinity the object had departed a few minutes earlier. Robbie and Jack looked at each other and seemed to communicate their thoughts without a word, as they both nodded and started towards the location of the light.

The other three stood and looked around helplessly at each other for a few moments. What the hell just happened? Kenny asked himself. Finally, without a word, Marcelo started in the direction Jack and Robbie had departed. Kenny grunted and also started to move in that direction. He stopped and looked back at Chris. “You’re not really going to stay here by yourself, are you?” he said.

“Oh sure, let’s all follow the dancing ball of lights!” Chris replied.

Chris threw down his duffel bag and started to follow as well.