Dark Skies

Arriving in Washington D.C. on the heels of the election of President John F. Kennedy, Kimberly Sayers finds work at the White House as boyfriend John Loengard plunges into his job as an aide to Congressman Charles Pratt. Sent to look into the Air forces investigation of UFO sightings, John meets a couple who claim to have been abducted by aliens. And back in Washington, hes accosted by the mysterious Navy Captain Frank Bach, whose history with UFOs dates back to when spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was downed over the Soviet Union while pursuing an alien spacecraft. Though warned that its too risky, John confronts Bach and is recruited into the top secret Project Majestic, whose most closely guarded secrets include the body of an extra- terrestrial. With his girlfriend and his boss in the dark, John is sent to interview an Idaho farmer who has been inhabited by a parasitic alien life form that Bach says are taking over human bodies. Then, as Kim suspects Johns comings and goi

Tracing alien radio transmissions received in New York City, Loengard and Sayers suspect the Hive is planning an operation around the American debut of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. At the studio where preparations are underway, they find nothing suspicious. However, after learning the radio operator theyre tracking died recently in a mysterious traffic accident, they find a second phone number for another suspect operator. Meanwhile, Bach stumbles onto evidence that the Hive has been rejecting some abductees.

Following some sightings in Wisconsin, Loengard and Sayers question dairy farmer Kester Boehm about the strange lights hes been seeing and the unusual deaths of some of his herd. Finding one of his cows implanted with a trio of triangular nodules, they head to the University of Wisconsin to see Mark Waring, a veterinary school graduate student familiar with Boehms problem. Though already warned by Majestic against discussing the case, Waring is persuaded to talk and reveals that the implants found in Boehms cow were not unique.

Loengards wife Kim decides that she cannot miss her sisters wedding in Denver and sneaks away from John while he meets with one of the few people who know his terrible secret. The man that Kims sister is planning to marry is Rob Winter, but he isnt what he appears to be ... hes a Majestic agent. During the course of his assignment, Rob really does fall in love with Kims sister and in the end, kills the people sent to harm Kim and her family instead of doing the job that he was sent to do.

Following the suspicious suicide of college classmate Robert Dewey, John and Kim arrive in Los Angeles to see their old friends Nat Heller and Gina Abbott. Learning that Deweys corpse was mysteriously confiscated by someone claiming to be with the coroners office, Kim heads to the funeral home to investigate. Upon discovering a cameraman lurking in the bushes, she meets film student Jim Morrison, who has documented the removal of Deweys body. And though John is suspicious, Kim befriends Morrison to find out just what he knows.

With the Warren Commission looking into the assassination of his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy asks John to testify. Despite Bachs warning, Kennedy paves the way with his own testimony before Loengard describes the events that led him into Majestic. And while John has a long way to go before convincing a skeptical Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren and his fellow commission members of his story, Bach decides to thoroughly discredit him anyway.

Despite tensions between Loengard and Albano, Bach is determined to get a glyph decoder held by Juliet. Realizing that its just the weapon that could help with a takeover of Majestic, Juliet agrees to let Bach use it to attract an alien ship. As Loengard, Sayers and Juliet work to replicate the crop circles suspected to denote landing sites, the young daughter of a widowed farmer slips into where they are working. And upon taking her home, John and Kim can only hope Monica Gresham hasnt seen too much. Then, as their ruse succeeds in attracting a ship, an attempt to capture it and the crew goes awry. So Bach gives John and Kim time to find a wounded Gray on their own. Seeking refuge at her fathers farm, the alien enlists Monicas help by promising her a chance to see her dead mother. Sensing that the Gray is nearby, Kim and John set up surveillance. Finding Monica looking for another critical artifact left behind by the ship, they follow her home to where the Gray is hiding. And thou

As Steele works on Sayers to willingly accept returning to the Hive, Loengard seeks anyone he believes can lead him to his wife. So, when Bach Juliet to Berkeley where the Hive is infiltrating the growing antiwar movement, John insists that he go along, to, unaware that hes being used to locate Kim. Although John spots her, he is unable to stop Kim from Joining Steele on a trip to visit her son. And as John and Juliet question antiwar activist Jerry Rubin about here whereabouts, back in Washington Bach sees that the Vietnam War can be used to increase funding for Majestic.

Following a disturbing message from the Soviet Unions counterpart to Majestic, Bach assembles a team that includes Loengard, Juliet and Army Major Colin Powell to investigate. While the team discovers most of Aura-Zs personnel are dead, they find a pair of researchers who survived. As Ludmilla and Pavel tell of experiments with prisoners that backfired and of the convicts who are now holding the head of Aura-Z and Juliets mentor, Colonel Dmitri Mironov, back in the US, Bach enlists astronomer Carl Sagan in an effort to find the Hives home planet.

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