Written by:

B.R.L.F.

Description:

After the chaos around the alien attack clears up, the scientists start to dig up the crashed remains of the mother ship and the drone ships around the Pacific.

Jake and his lab partner Taylor, along with their intern Frank are military scientists who are given the first quantity of an unnamed metal, both are instructed by their lab manager to test the metal and extract it to its purest form. Its not carbon based, its not from earth, and its not found anywhere else.

The Foreign Metal

"Get me the Mohs' hardness picks please."

"Sure. Want your coffee reheated?" Taylor said, about to step out the door of the lab. It was very early in the morning.

"Sure," Jake said, almost shouting as Taylor was already out the door and around the corner. He rested his head in his palms and almost fell back asleep. Taylor's footsteps woke him back up before she got back inside the lab.

"Thanks," Jake said grabbing the cup of coffee and taking a large sip while grabbing the kit of hardness picks.

"Tell you what, I'll do the tests and you can wake up a bit more. I'll tell you what to record." Taylor said, taking the kit out of Jake's hand and moving the rock in front of herself. She put a piece of paper with tape over on the flat rock. It was about a foot wide and an inch thick. She scratched the slab carefully with each pick and inspected the rock carefully after each test.

As Taylor was on the fifth level of hardness with no results, Jake and Taylor's intern walked in and sat down at their desk.

"Frank could you wake up Jake. Any way possible." Taylor said. Frank got up and carefully shook Jake's shoulder. Jake became alert and started writing down notes. Frank sat back down and studied Taylor with interest.

"Did you guys have any luck with trying to melt it yet?" Frank asked the two.

"No. The thing can be in the middle of Tsar Bomba and still come out without turning red." Jake said before drinking the last of his coffee.

The lab manager walked in. His name was Harold, and he was holding a clipboard.

"Good news guys! We found a way to melt it. You can drop that test for now. After you scratch the thing you can start this new assignment." Harold said dropping a few papers onto the desk. "You need to figure out how to get this stuff to levitate."

"Sir?" Frank said confused.

"The aliens did it, so find a way to replicate it."

"Sir I don't think we can do that."

"I don't give a shit. I want it done."

"I still don't think it's possible to replicate..."

"Listen, kid. Do you know who the Soviets are? They're still the enemy. If they can figure out how to use this stuff before we do then they could end the entire world. We don't want that happening, so GET THIS SHIT FIGURED THE FUCK OUT!" Harold yelled as he slammed his fist on the desk. "AND THAT'S A DIRECT ORDER DO YOU UNDERSTAND."

Frank looked down in shame, "Yes sir"

Taylor scratched the diamond pick on the slab and heard and nails on a chalkboard sound. She inspected the scratch line with a flashlight. She scribbled a note on the paper.

"Sir I will get on that straight away," Taylor said.

"Good, I'm looking for any results by the end of the week. Anything at all is noteworthy." Harold said. He promptly left the lab.

"Frank get the SX-64, I'll need your typing skills."

"Yes, ma'am," Frank said, getting up to get his computer. When he returned he propped up the computer and plugged it into power.

"Frank I need you to type everything me and Jake say. Like Harold said everything is noteworthy. Let's start by testing if this thing can carry an electric current. If it can carry fifty watts then I'm sure we can figure something out." Taylor said, grabbing wires out of the drawer next to her.

After about five minutes of setup, the slab was ready to carry an electrical current. Everyone put their goggles on and they turned the power on. The slab did nothing but fry the wall socket.

"Dammit! The wall is fried." Jake said, grabbing a fire extinguisher.

"My computer got shut off," Frank said, moving the computer to another outlet.

"Did you lose what we said?" Jake asked

"I don't think so. As long as the battery is okay." Frank said checking the back of the computer for any damage.

"Let's try that again," Jake said. "This time lets try 10 watts."

They set up again, they plugged it in again, and once again a fuse gets blown.

"Jake you need to stop moving the plug to my outlet, my computer keeps shutting off."

"What do you mean? My cable is over here." Jake said, pointing at the outlet with his power cable.

"They why the hell does my computer keep shutting off?" Frank said, checking the battery pack.

"Where're my earrings?" Taylor asked, feeling her cut ear.

"Is that it on the slab?" Jake said pointing at the earrings on the metal.

"Huh," Taylor said. "Okay, how about five?"

"Sure. The less the better. Frank, you got it working again?"

"Yeah. I'm ready when you are." Frank said, turning the computer on for the second time.

"Actually, its almost time for breakfast. Anyone hungry?" Jake asked.

"Yeah me. Let's go." Taylor said getting up. "Frank, you want to come along?"

"No thanks, I gotta work on this computer anyway."

As soon as the two of them left the room he sat in front of his computer trying to figure out why it shut down again.

"How to make it levitate," Frank said to himself repeatedly. He stared at the slab hooked up with wires. Frank wasn't allowed to do testing on his own, but he wanted to try something. He got up and turned on the switch so it would give the slab five watts of power.

His watch started to tug on his arm to the slab. His glasses flew off his head and shattered on the flat side of the metal. His computer shut off again. Frank turned off the power after his glasses flew off his head.

"What the fuck just happened," Frank said walking around the table to where the metal is. He picked up his shattered glasses and tried to see out of them. He checked his computer to see it was shut off again.

"Is this thing magnetic when electric?" Frank said to himself as he looked at his broken computer. "Oh my god, it is."

He knew he'd get into trouble for messing around with the lab setting, so he needed an excuse for his broken glasses. He decided when he heard Taylor and Jake coming back he would trip and break his glasses on the floor. They suspected nothing since five watts didn't fry the outlet again.

"Can I recommend an idea? How about you reverse the direction of current?" Frank said to them.

"I don't see why not," Jake said.

"Okay fine but that will be another variable to deal with," Taylor said moving the cables from one side to another. "Got it. When you're ready to turn it on."

Jake counted down and turned the power on. It started to float parallel to the desk.

"HOLY SHIT WE GOT IT. Frank! Call Harold. Good recommendation!" Jake yelled in excitement.

Frank got up and walked over to the phone. He smiled to himself knowing that he discovered how to make the foreign metal levitate. Harold rushed down to the lab to find Taylor and Jake excited about the metal floating. And as a reward, Frank got to name the metal.

He decided to call the new metal after his last name. Alaegium.