Read Saucer: Savage Planet for Free Online

computer scientists, who were having a wonderful time but had yet to crack the computer’s core code. A linguistics expert was working on the computer’s language, if it was language. Still, Egg liked to put on the headband and surf the computer to see what he could find. It was as if he had the Library of Congress in his hands, and yet all he could do was wander through the aisles sampling books.
    Even as that thought occurred to him, the computer responded. He saw the organizational outline of the device’s memory and sat studying it for a long moment. He had learned that the computer responded to questions, but what if the user didn’t know what question to ask?
    His mind wandered. Idly, he thought of Rip and his airplane, an Extra 300L, and wondered what Rip and Charley were going to need to do to get it airworthy again.
    The computer answered. He saw the damage to the airplane, the bullet holes and bent landing gear, that happened when Rip crashed the plane.
    Egg ripped off the headband.
    How had the computer learned of the damage?
    Egg’s mind raced. Well, Rip had worn the headband on several occasions while they were in Australia, idly exploring. So had Charley.
    Could it be? Could the computer archive the memory of its user, to add to its database?
    Galvanized, he replaced the headband and thought of Rip. What did Rip know about the Extra’s condition?
    The machine knew.
    Rip’s childhood, his visits to Egg’s Missouri farm. The scenes scrolled past him as if they were on film. Some of the scenes were hazy—perhaps because Rip had forgotten some of them.
    The bass—what did Rip remember of the time Egg took him bass fishing? And there it was, a movie filmed from Rip’s youthful perspective. There Egg was, baiting the hooks, showing Rip how to cast … and there he was holding up a fish, grinning at Rip.
    Egg’s mind raced on. His trip to the moon? There it was, the French thugs, the obsidian sky full of stars, the weightlessness … he could feel the weightlessness and the G forces as the saucer’s engines ignited, see the moon, stark and burning brightly in unfiltered sunlight. The experience was right there in his mind’s eye and he was reliving it! He even felt the fear that he had experienced then, fear because he knew as he flew the saucer that he was in over his depth.
    Now Egg fumbled with the headband, tearing it off his head.
    My God!
    The computer mined the memories of its users and stored everything they knew.
    He sat staring with unseeing eyes at the autumn scene just beyond the window, trying to get his thoughts in order.
    Deborah Deehring had worn the headband. Egg was tempted, for a few seconds, then decided no. Her memories were hers and shouldn’t be shared without her permission. Nor should Rip or Charley’s.
    The ancient spacemen had also worn it; they were long dead, so they had no privacy rights.
    *   *   *
    When Rip and Charley came back to the house for lunch, they found Egg wearing the headband and hunched over in his chair, with his eyes closed. Charley Pine tapped him on the shoulder, which caused him to open his eyes. Reluctantly Egg removed the headband and looked around slowly, trying to come back to this reality.
    “Uncle Egg?” Charley said softly.
    Egg reached up and took her hand.
    He glanced at her and a concerned Rip. “I know now,” he said slowly, “why the people who flew your saucer came to earth.”
    Both Rip and Charley sat down on the couch, side by side, and stared at him.
    “Two men and three women were in the saucer. They didn’t come to colonize. They came to implant DNA samples in living creatures.”
    Rip recovered his voice first. “Why?”
    “That I don’t know. Nor do I know what happened to them. They arrived … searched for a suitable place to land and found it beside a stream in a meadow with trees on the surrounding hills. Then the pilot took off the headband.” Egg gestured futilely. “That’s all I know. Apparently they