Future Darkly: The Ghost Rocket

'Those Whom We Love Are Often The Most Alien To Us.' The scene opens on an empty field late at night. Stars twinkle overhead as the camera pulls back to reveal Roger (Michael Vegas), a self-published conspiracy theorist peering through a telescope. He's wearing nothing but boxer shorts, a UFO t-shirt, and glowing LED glasses. His hair is greased back and he's guzzling a can of liquid caffeine as he hops from the telescope to the back of his flatbed truck, where his latest invention waits. It's a small but mighty antenna built to beam mathematical equations into space, hoping to contact a ghost rocket. Roger is convinced this long-disputed UFO phenomenon is his ticket to meeting alien life. As he clicks the final pieces together, he mutters into a homemade gadget strapped to his wrist, rattling off decades of Scandinavian ghost rocket sightings and the fresh 2046 reports lighting up the Pacific Northwest and California. Every sighting, he grumbles, was denied by the government despite radar returns and even physical fragments. He rips off his shirt, slaps a tinfoil cap on his head, and shouts into the dark, 'Until now, you sons of bitches!' He plants transmitters in his ears, rubs petroleum jelly across his chest, and types the last line of code into his laptop before hitting enter and aiming his antenna skyward. Static crackles louder and louder as he spins the dish. Then it locks onto something. A beam of light splits the sky and strikes the antenna. Just as fast as it appeared, the beam vanishes and Roger drops to the ground, his melted antenna lying beside him. Cherie DeVille soon joins the cosmic chaos, and Roger learns that first contact can get very hands-on. This award-winning sci-fi romp proves the truth isn't just out there, it's about to get very close and personal.