The Fate of Destiny Part 177
(One Year Later)
Max tipped the book up to read the title. “Atlantis? Again?”
“I like it.” She smiled up at him and went back to her reading. “It’s a cautionary tale.”
“A people who advanced beyond their means and destroyed themselves?”
“Exactly.” Beth turned a page. “How do we know that the cone didn’t originate on Earth… or screw that… maybe it didn’t originate here but has been here before. Could be billions of years old. Maybe… maybe.”
“Maybe.”
“I know I can’t prove it but it could be. Right?”
“Maybe.”
“If Atlantis was real.”
“If it was real.” Max kissed her head and sent up a silent prayer to whoever was listening that they never had to answer that possible scenario. “Give it a break?”
“I have to head back to campus anyway.” She shut the book. “Ever feel like It let you in the secret and made you forget again?”
“Sometimes.” He leaned on the back of the couch to get a good look at her face. “Why do you ask?”
“Sometimes I feel it coming back into me… little bit at a time and right when I’m sure I have enough energy to go back to that time… something happens and I have more important things to do or… I spaz and lose it.”
“Maybe it’s not time.”
“Maybe it is but I’m not ready.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe, baby. Story of my life.”
Max watched her gather her books. “What more important things?”
“Life, Dad.” She sighed and kept going.
--
“We’re here!” Em pushed open the door, arms laden with baby crap. Dan followed with babies.
“Hey…” Michael swooped in to scoop the babies up so Dan could help Em set up the pen in the living room. “Uncle Stephen! Uncle Mattie! The babies are here!”
“Hi Dad.” Em hugged him around her children. “Where’s the bird?”
“At work, still.” Michael eyed the kids. “How do you tell them apart?”
“This one has boy parts and that one has girl parts.”
“They’re both bald.” Michael glared at her.
“Gracie is getting her hair. She had a bow on but she yanked it off about half way here.” Em turned and caught her brothers as they raced in to see their nephew and niece. “Hey boys, you miss me.”
“No!” Stephen squealed.
“Bonjour! Hello!” Oriel nudged the door open, her hands full of groceries. “So many babies. I’ll be right there.” Em leapt in to help, dragging Stephen with her. “Thank you. Thank you.”
--
Diane smiled to herself as she read her email. She turned to Jim. “He’s still alive but says that Japan is rainy this time of year.”
“He’s going to start every email with “Hey Grandma, Grandpa, I’m still alive.” because you said he’d die.” Jim craned his head at her from his chair. “He’ll be fine. He is his mother’s son after all.”
“I never forget that he is his father’s son. He’s got a deep Valenti streak.” She chided him back.
--
Beth laid her hand on her book to absorb the knowledge for her test on Thursday while staring at Gabriel while he paced in front of her. He glared. “Shouldn’t you be studying?”
“You said you wanted to talk. So talk.” This classroom would be empty for another day or so, it was perfect to study in, reflect in and have arguments in. Beth had just settled herself when he had barged in. She had watched him open his mouth and point at her several times but he had yet to actually talk to her.
“I never said that I didn’t want the baby.” He blurted out.
“I never said you felt that way but I was saying that it… you didn’t…” Beth took a deep breath. “I didn’t have an abortion, Gabriel. It died.”
“I didn’t think that.” He looked away. She knew he was lying.
“I have one ovary. I have a very temperamental biology… there was nothing I could have done.”
“It wasn’t my fault.”
“I didn’t say it was. We were both there. We did it together.” She watched him pace. They’d had versions of this argument for weeks.
“What do you want from me?”
“You weren’t there Gabriel. You weren’t there and I know that we don’t have the trust we used to have but I would have thought that you’d be there and I could count on you.”
“You can.”
“I couldn’t.” She looked up at him where he’d stopped his pacing directly across from her. “I didn’t feel like I could call you. I love you, Gabriel but… the things you say and do make me feel like an afterthought to your life. When it happened, I could feel it and I couldn’t stop it and when it was over, I was alone and I was empty… and I didn’t feel like I could call you.”
“Does your dad know?”
“No, I didn’t tell him.”
Finally, he sat in the desk next to hers. “I would have come if you had told me that you thought you were pregnant.” She flinched when he laid his hand on her shoulder but he left his hand where it was. “I would have come. You are not an afterthought and I really wish we were in a place where the thought of a baby coming was perfect news but we’re still in school, living in our respective homes and… I am not glad that it died. I am sad that I won’t get to know that person that it might have been but… it’s not a good time.”
“No, it’s not… That’s all stuff that I know, Gabriel. I’m not asking you to feel bad. I’m not asking you to wish that it hadn’t died. I’m just asking you to…” She sobbed and fell into his arms. Gabriel caught her and pulled her close.
“You didn’t tell anyone else, did you?” Her head shook against his shoulder. “Did you even get checked out?” Another head shake. “Then how do you know that you’re okay? How do you know what happened?”
“I could feel it.” She sobbed. “I could feel it growing. I could feel it stuck and then I felt it die.”
“Stuck?”
“Inside me. It was stuck where it shouldn’t have been and I could have died. I didn’t want to have to choose between me and It.”
“It’s okay. It’s okay. You’re here. You’re alive. You’re safe. I’ve got you.”
“Do I? Do I have you?”
“You always have, sweetie. Always.”
--
Liz listened to dead air for a few moments. “Sweetie, you still there?”
“Yeah, I’m here. It’s hard being here alone.” Kat admitted.
“I know Jolene was important to you.”
“It was always kind of weird, Mom. She was like a grandmother but she wasn’t. She couldn’t tell me anything about Tess. She couldn’t give me anything except maybe understand how to be different and not act different.”
“You had that act down long before she came along.”
“It’s hard, Mom. Sometimes I feel like I’m only with Will because he knows so much about me.”
“Do you love him?”
“I’m afraid to trust him. I don’t think we can survive that.”
“You don’t have to be with him.” Liz sighed. “Just because he’s there and wants you doesn’t mean you have to want him back.”
“I want him, I don’t trust him.”
“Where is he?”
“Chasing down that woman.” Kat took a deep breath. “She’s gone AWOL and there’s evidence she’s snapped.”
“What kind of evidence?”
“She turned in a report that implicates the president in a conspiracy to allow alien invaders onto Earth for world domination.”
“She believes that?”
“She does. She also believes her father has seven clones and is systematically repopulating the world. It was in the report.”
“How is he going to find her? She was trained by the FBI…”
“He’s calling in a favor.”
--
Will traced the cards to a dead end and then set bait out to trick her into coming out. Her biological father had once kidnapped a small boy to be a father for a few hours. Perhaps all she really wanted was to be somebody’s daughter for a while.
Zan had agreed to play bait inasmuch as he was able. His face would be a dead giveaway but someone had to try. It had worked on a civilian once. Will waited in the surveillance van while Zan made his trek down the darkened streets of a Florida college campus. He traced a path that the grandson of his human originator had walked many times when he had been alive. The granilith had left him with little but he was determined to use what he had left to his advantage. He had done so much wrong in his life that recovering what little he had left and setting as many things right as he could… and it may never be enough.
Through an interview with two extremely rude and hoity-toity women, Zan had gleaned enough of this man’s life to know where he had been and how he had lived. He had been a loyal alumna and had frequented the college that had done him well. He had had a few affairs with students when it seemed that he would never have children with his wife. He had suspected but not known the girl he’d slept with during a bender in college had conceived his child and she had lived and had known who he was.
Zan tramped up the stairs to a room that had once been the dorm room of one privileged individual. Touching the surfaces of the walls and door knobs had opened a window into the life of this man when he was a young man with high hopes and lofty dreams of being a family man. He had come back, time and time again. He had sat in this room after fighting with his girlfriend, had drunk an entire bottle of something brewed to forget and had slept with the body who had come in to comfort him. Had sat in this room while he pondered what he’d tell his fiancé about what he suspected about a girl that lived in her sorority house. Had come back when the last baby died… Had come back when his own father died and the dreams had begun.
Zan’s heard seized up when he felt the grief of the man who had thought his last wife’s child had died. Remembered how it felt to hold that child’s neck in his hand and threaten to end her life. Turning to the window, Zan was flooded with the anxiety and grief this man had felt at the loss and the hope that had sprung when his phone rang and a detective had pledged himself to the cause.
The footsteps were soft at first, then came in a rush. “Daddy?”
Zan was careful to keep his face turned away. He was careful because if she rabbited, they might not catch her. He reached his hand back to her.
Will signaled his men and they crept across the lawn to the building up the stairs. Before they could get up the first flight, a gunshot sounded.
--
“I don’t want to talk about her.” Gabriel whined.
“I just want to feel like I know you again.” Beth whined back. “You never talk about her.”
“What do you want to hear, Beth? I’m sure there’s plenty about my relationship with her that you don’t want to know.”
“Okay. You’re right.” They made their way to her house. “It’s not that I wasn’t insanely jealous or anything but… I thought you were happy with her.”
“Why do you want to talk about this now?”
Beth stared up at him. “Cause I’m ready to let you in and I want to know that you’ll still be here in the morning.”
“Sweetie, you’ve left me… you’ve broken my heart and I think we’ll survive this miscarriage business… I… don’t think you could run me off, not even if you told me you were really a reptilian alien underneath all that pretty.” He ran a finger down her nose.
“Well, I’m not reptilian… not to my knowledge anyway.”
--
Liz held her granddaughter in her arms. “She’s gotten so big.”
“Gracie eats and eats and steals Phil’s bottle to eat more.” Em did her best to feed her son while her daughter was in someone else’s arms.
“You used to steal Dan’s bottle sometimes. Your mother would gripe at you and say that you were always eating… just like your dad.” Liz’s eyes filled with tears for a minute but she blinked them away. “She would drive you crazy if she were here.”
“I wish I remembered her more.” Em admitted, not for the first time.
“You were so little.”
Donna Jo wandered in and squealed when she saw the babies. “I didn’t know they were coming.”
“Where’s your hot date?” Liz tilted her head at her.
“Emergency at school. He’s all nerdy these days.” Donna Jo shrugged. “We’ll go after he gets out of study group.”
“Dating cousin Chuck, it’s weird.” Em sing-songed as she fought with her cranky son and his bottle.
“He’s not MY cousin.” Donna stuck out her tongue and leaned over to examine the youngest Evans. “He looks like you.”
“Mom! I’m ho---oooome!” Beth called out as she drug her boyfriend through the door.
“Sh. You’ll wake the baby.” Liz shushed her as she held fast onto her granddaughter.
“She so noisy.” Gabriel agreed as he greeted Liz with a kiss to the cheek and a tweak to baby Gracie’s nose. “Hey little one.”
As Beth, Liz, Em and Donna Jo devolved into cooing machines, Gabriel snuck off with Phil and the bottle to “give the boy some peace.” Liz listened with half an ear while she watched her daughter’s boyfriend handle the cranky boy like a pro. Donna Jo asked a question that made Em snort. Liz rejoined the conversation. “Taking care of two babies just takes patience.”
“Mom.” Beth whispered, her eyes far away. She had been about to reveal her secret pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage when a cry went up in a part of her mind that she thought was closed to her. “There’s something going on.”
“Going on?” Liz focused on her.
“There’s been a shoot out.”
--
Max turned his head away from the young man he examined on his table. The dizziness passed. He finished his exam and rushed out to the break room to use his cell. Will didn’t answer. He dialed another number and got Ledford. “Sir, I’d love to fill you in on the details but we have a situation FUBAR to deal with.”
Max stared at his phone while it flashed mere seconds at him.
TBC
The Fate of Destiny Part 181E CC/UC ADULT 09/02/10 COMPLETE
Moderators: Anniepoo98, Itzstacie, truelovepooh, Erina, Forum Moderators
Re: The Fate of Destiny Part 178 CC/UC ADULT 05/29/10
The Fate of Destiny Part 178
Agent Ledford paced the floor, cell phone glued to her ear. There were four in surgery, four others wounded. Family members had to be contacted and this was a field disaster. The representative who showed up was the actress who was shooting in the area. Lauren listened to the doctors and made the calls to the family. Local members of the injured’s families began to show up close to midnight with no news.
Lauren sat in the waiting room with this duty on her shoulders. No love lost between her and any of those in the surgical unit… but she loved her new family and it was a small price to pay. Then she saw her. Ms. Seyton. The never married, always with a companion, and part of a world that had expelled Lauren when she was a few hours old. Still, Lauren was the wall between the world and the surgery unit.
Nat was the first to show up. He had his mother and siblings in tow. He nodded to Lauren and made a motion with his hands. She shook her head. “No word yet.”
“Okay…” He paced the room once then stopped next to her again. “Vending machines? The kids are gonna be cranky if they don’t eat soon.”
“Are they his too?”
“Nah.” He shook his head. “He… uh… started coming around after that whole thing couple years ago. Nicest dad substitute they’ve had. They like him.”
“Do you?”
“Don’t know yet.”
--
Max listened the best he could to the happenings. Agent Seyton had pulled a gun on Zan, fired and missed due to his ability to deflect… the other agents had rushed the room and her training kicked in. Shots were fired by all who had guns. So far, no one had died but there were those who came close. Beth stared out the window of the plane, speaking softly as she observed the goings on several states over.
“Sweetie?”
“Sorry.” She whispered after she’d stopped talking for a long while. “I forget that I’m supposed to hate him sometimes. I find myself calling him and realizing that I shouldn’t because of what Kat might think or feel.”
“How’s he doing?”
“He was shot in the chest. They’re having trouble stabilizing him because… it’s his lung and there’s bleeding and he’s a smoker and he’s a drinker and… it’s very hard.”
“Kat knows?”
“She knows.”
Max crossed his arms, staring at the empty seat in front of him. “I always wondered what in the world goes through his head to do what he did to her. I always thought he loved her.”
“He does love her. He always did. He was spiraling and even he didn’t know it until it was too late.” Beth counted the stars she could see. “He works in a high stress field with high stress individuals and he was at a boiling point that he couldn’t see because he was buzzed nearly all the time if he wasn’t totally three sheets to the wind.” It made her sad because for so long he was her only friend. The only one who knew who she was and still held her accountable for her actions, the only one she respected and she knew respected her. “He never told any of us that Lily died.”
“When did she die?”
“About six hours before… They called him. He drank a liquor store and then he slept with Crazy. He was supposed to be working. He was supposed to be her superior but he just gave up for a little bit. It’s not a good excuse.”
“Do you still have his permission to do that?”
“Yes.”
“When did you start doing that again?”
“When he started bleeding from the hole in his chest.” Beth turned her head to look at him. “I don’t take it as a good sign that I can do this, with this going on. I’m not even searching him, he’s giving it to me.”
“He’s giving it to you?”
“He opened the door for me and he’s taking me on a tour… Zan, too.” She stared at him. “He didn’t grow up the way you did. He always knew exactly what he was. He always hid it better than you did and he always screwed up bigger than you did.” She smiled to herself. “He also gives up harder than you do.”
“How so?”
“You give up, you stop talking and you chain-smoke for a week. Then you come back and you try again.”
“What happens when he gives up?”
“People die… and sometimes… people are created.”
“Beth. Riddles? Huh?”
“Oh.” Beth grinned and covered her face so she could have the conversation she meant to have. “His family. When he gave up on them, they ended up dying because… he let them. Other times… he wasn’t careful. He wasn’t careful on purpose. He was… spreading misery.”
“How many kids?”
“A lot.”
“What about her, Beth?”
“She’s… a victim of her own genetics, Dad.” She dropped her hands to her feet where they were perched on the edge of her seat. “A mother so steeped in her own blue blood that she hid her child’s true parentage to have a secret. A father who wanted a child so badly with his wife that he didn’t even think about a girl he had a one-night stand with while on a bender. Then there’s the part of her that’s part of us. The blood.”
“Is that what this is?”
“I think she was unhinged to begin with but probably.”
“What are their chances?”
“Anybody’s guess, Dad.”
--
Alex yawned as he pushed open the doors. Try as he might, he could not convince his baby sister to stay behind so she was right on his heels. Alex listened to the situation as far as Ledford and Lauren could explain it. The situation was dire. There were news cameras in the parking lot and the phones were ringing and extra security had been brought in. The college administration were pacing the hallways, waiting for someone to give them a clue about what was going on. There was no way to cover up a shoot out at the senior dormitory, even with all the money that poured in from the rich families.
He held the fort when Mrs. Seyton was escorted into another room to be given an update and a very brief explanation for why she was summoned to the hospital. Lauren was in makeup, he held the line while she went to wash up. Gina sat with some kids waiting next to some guy Alex vaguely remembered from the last family crisis. Alex stared down the room at the other family members who had hopped on planes earlier in the day and were waiting, patiently, for news.
He looked up when the tall fellow loomed over him and held out his hand. “I’m Nat.”
“Alex.”
“You here for the FBI guy?”
“Um…” Alex blinked up at him. “I’m the um… representative for the unit…”
“So you are here for the FBI guy.” Nat nodded and took a seat next to him. “My dad was in that room.” He shrugged. “I… thought this was a no-brainer for him. Getting shot just means he’s down for a bit. I didn’t think he’d need surgery.”
Then it all fell into place. “They can still die, Nat. My mom is dead. It wasn’t a bullet, though. They can die.”
“Isn’t there something the others can do?”
“They’re on their way.”
Nat sat back to wait. He wasn’t worried. He wasn’t. He barely knew the guy. Hell, he had changed on him as soon as he thought he knew him. So what if Amy and Jamie loved the guy. George had moved out, he didn’t count, the traitor. He didn’t care if Zan made it. He didn’t. They had only come to make his mom calm the hell down. He sat there, staring at his knees until he felt her walk into the building. He looked up when she turned the corner with her dad. “Hey Beth.”
“Hey, Nat.” She sat next to him. “He’s fighting it. He’s hurt bad.”
“I can’t do what you do.”
“I know. That’s why we’re here.”
--
When Will woke up, all he heard was the beeping of his own heart from the monitor. He felt like he was floating. “That’s the opiates, sir. It’ll stop eventually.” He couldn’t quite open his eyes but he was sure he knew the blob sitting next to his bed. “You’re alive. Say thank you, Will.”
“Thank you, Will.”
“Maybe I fixed you up too good.”
Blinking, she slowly came into focus. “Did you leave my penis?”
“Tempted as I was to cut it off, or render you permanently impotent, no.” Beth propped her feet up on the bed. “Besides, as much as I like Agent Ledford… I can’t talk to her the way I can you.”
“What story did you give the doctors?”
“Let them do their work and I fixed you up the second they put you in ICU.”
“How many others got hurt?”
“A few.” She sighed and stared at him. “Crazy made it through surgery. Dad had to explain to her mother that a) he was not Satan’s father, b) that Satan made it through surgery and c) that Satan needed whatever was passing for a sanatorium these days.”
“They do not put people in sanatoriums. There are plenty of mental health facilities where she can get the help she needs.”
“They can’t cure alien-induced genetic crazy, Will. They just can’t.”
“Anyone else get hurt, Miss Sensitive?”
“Dad had a time with his other.” She took her feet down and leaned her elbows on the bed. “He’s still working on him.”
“Where did he get shot?”
“Chest, head, belly.” She shrugged. “I guess he was standing behind her or something.”
“You’re… kind of… nonchalant about somebody getting shot and maybe dying.”
“I think you need more morphine.”
“Beth.”
“It’s not like he’s a nice guy or anything.”
“He did us a favor by being the bait and now he might die.” Will tried to sit up but he couldn’t. He still hurt and he was still dizzy.
“You don’t know him the way I know him.” Beth bit out.
“You ever talk to anyone about your time in New York?”
“It was a training ground, Will. You had Quantico… I had New York City.”
“Did you… hurt people, Beth?”
“It happens.” She didn’t make eye contact. “Someday… I’ll do it on purpose and it will more than count as a dark mark on my soul.”
“Accident before?”
“I didn’t stop him and that makes it just as much my fault.”
--
Alex shut his phone and looked around the waiting room. One by one, families had gone on to visit their loved ones. The lack of fatalities had sent the college people on back to wherever they belonged.
Gina kept staring at him. She didn’t say a word. She had stopped mingling with other people and just stared at him. Alex stared back. She didn’t smile. He shrugged at her. “You’re a jerk.”
“Where did that come from?”
“You know.”
“You’re 11.”
“I still know you’re a jerk.”
“You sound like Mom.”
“Duh.”
“Gina.”
“When are we going to go see Grandma and Grampa?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then you do see that you are a jerk. I rest my case.” Gina hopped off her chair and ran to hug her Uncle Max.
--
Beth sat next to Seyton’s bed. It was a wonder the woman hadn’t completely snapped sooner. Seyton opened her eyes but her eyes didn’t see the room. Beth probed gently. “When did they launch the ships?”
“Decades ago. Energy sources have been an issue for centuries. They knew it was coming to this.”
“How far are they?”
“You will meet them.”
“How long?”
Seyton’s eyes rolled back in her head and Beth pulled back. After a moment, Seyton stopped seizing and Beth let the monitors function normally again. Beth reached over and touched her head for a moment before she rose to leave. “Sleep. It’s the best thing you can do.”
--
Max stood at the end of his clone’s bed. He was alive. Barely. Max could feel it. There was no saving the alien this time. Beth walked in a minute later with Nat. “He’s not getting better.”
“His aura’s dark.” Beth whispered. She turned to Nat. “I could help you say goodbye.”
“No.” Nat shook his head.
“Zan wants to say goodbye to you.” Max interjected before Beth could say the wrong thing.
Nat stared at the scars and new bandages and sat down. Beth took his head in her hands. “Relax, it’ll only hurt for a second.”
--
Liz set the coffee pot back on the warmer and joined her son at the table. “Up early?”
“Up late.” He shrugged and spun a quarter on the table. “Couldn’t sleep.” He endured the inevitable hand against his forehead and thumbs against the circles under his eyes. “Weird dreams.”
“Out-dreamed the dream catcher?”
“I guess.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“Not really. It was too… Kafka-esque.” He made a face at his invented word.
“Bug people?”
“Aliens.” Donna Jo offered from the doorway. “He was talking in his sleep… before he started pacing.”
“Alien dreams?” Liz frowned at her son and waited while Donna Jo settled herself with her own cup of coffee. “David.”
“I don’t know. Alien dreams.”
“David.” Liz pressed.
“He was asking someone why the spaces between galaxies were so vast.” Donna Jo made a face at him. “His words not mine.”
“Anything else?”
“I don’t know. It’s all kind of fuzzy and it’s fading.” He shrugged again.
“David…” Liz breathed in and out slowly. “You haven’t had a dream you remembered since you were four and out of the blue just shy of your 19th birthday… David… tell me.”
“Okay… so…” David stole Donna Jo’s coffee for a sip and made a face at its blandness. “I’m dreaming and then I’m on this ship, staring out the window… and I’m not me. I’m talking about space to someone behind me. The words are… young.”
“Then what happened?”
“The other person starts talking back. Scientific stuff. Star drifts and velocities and sublight and subspace… I couldn’t keep up. Then the young person I am asks…” He trailed off.
“He asked what real gravity was like.” Donna Jo supplied. “I was only getting half the conversation but it was involved. Definitely like a little kid. How long until we get there? What will we do when we get there? Will there be other people there? Will those people be friendly? Do you think we’ll meet him?”
“Meet who?” Liz flicked her gaze back to her son.
“The King of Antar.” David finally supplied. “The other half of that conversation… was probably a parent. We’ll get there when we get there. We’ll build a new life. Yes, there are people. Some will be friendly. No, it’s not likely he’ll be there or have time for us little people if he is. He’s not the one you really want to meet. The streams from home showed a new ruler. They say she’s the Sleeper.”
“David, that’s not a dream and you know it.” Liz took a minute to catch her breath. “You were dreamwalking.”
“I know.”
“They’re close enough for you to dreamwalk them.”
“What’s close? Between galaxies.” David slammed his fists on the table in an uncharacteristic burst of anger. “My whole life has been about Beth since she went crazy. Now, I can’t even dream without her being the center of it.”
“Sweetie, I know it feels that way now… once upon a time your brother and sisters had you as the center of the universe… I have not been the center of my own universe since I was 16. It’s a part of life. Your sister would give anything not to be the center of anyone’s universe except for maybe one…” She smoothed his hair back. “She doesn’t do it on purpose. It’s who she is and believe me. I’d rather her not be either… but she is.”
“Okay… I know we’re all dramatic with Beth is the sacred being from another planet but um… what does David’s dream mean? I mean really?” Donna Jo cut in.
“It means someone’s coming and we don’t know when.”
TBC
Agent Ledford paced the floor, cell phone glued to her ear. There were four in surgery, four others wounded. Family members had to be contacted and this was a field disaster. The representative who showed up was the actress who was shooting in the area. Lauren listened to the doctors and made the calls to the family. Local members of the injured’s families began to show up close to midnight with no news.
Lauren sat in the waiting room with this duty on her shoulders. No love lost between her and any of those in the surgical unit… but she loved her new family and it was a small price to pay. Then she saw her. Ms. Seyton. The never married, always with a companion, and part of a world that had expelled Lauren when she was a few hours old. Still, Lauren was the wall between the world and the surgery unit.
Nat was the first to show up. He had his mother and siblings in tow. He nodded to Lauren and made a motion with his hands. She shook her head. “No word yet.”
“Okay…” He paced the room once then stopped next to her again. “Vending machines? The kids are gonna be cranky if they don’t eat soon.”
“Are they his too?”
“Nah.” He shook his head. “He… uh… started coming around after that whole thing couple years ago. Nicest dad substitute they’ve had. They like him.”
“Do you?”
“Don’t know yet.”
--
Max listened the best he could to the happenings. Agent Seyton had pulled a gun on Zan, fired and missed due to his ability to deflect… the other agents had rushed the room and her training kicked in. Shots were fired by all who had guns. So far, no one had died but there were those who came close. Beth stared out the window of the plane, speaking softly as she observed the goings on several states over.
“Sweetie?”
“Sorry.” She whispered after she’d stopped talking for a long while. “I forget that I’m supposed to hate him sometimes. I find myself calling him and realizing that I shouldn’t because of what Kat might think or feel.”
“How’s he doing?”
“He was shot in the chest. They’re having trouble stabilizing him because… it’s his lung and there’s bleeding and he’s a smoker and he’s a drinker and… it’s very hard.”
“Kat knows?”
“She knows.”
Max crossed his arms, staring at the empty seat in front of him. “I always wondered what in the world goes through his head to do what he did to her. I always thought he loved her.”
“He does love her. He always did. He was spiraling and even he didn’t know it until it was too late.” Beth counted the stars she could see. “He works in a high stress field with high stress individuals and he was at a boiling point that he couldn’t see because he was buzzed nearly all the time if he wasn’t totally three sheets to the wind.” It made her sad because for so long he was her only friend. The only one who knew who she was and still held her accountable for her actions, the only one she respected and she knew respected her. “He never told any of us that Lily died.”
“When did she die?”
“About six hours before… They called him. He drank a liquor store and then he slept with Crazy. He was supposed to be working. He was supposed to be her superior but he just gave up for a little bit. It’s not a good excuse.”
“Do you still have his permission to do that?”
“Yes.”
“When did you start doing that again?”
“When he started bleeding from the hole in his chest.” Beth turned her head to look at him. “I don’t take it as a good sign that I can do this, with this going on. I’m not even searching him, he’s giving it to me.”
“He’s giving it to you?”
“He opened the door for me and he’s taking me on a tour… Zan, too.” She stared at him. “He didn’t grow up the way you did. He always knew exactly what he was. He always hid it better than you did and he always screwed up bigger than you did.” She smiled to herself. “He also gives up harder than you do.”
“How so?”
“You give up, you stop talking and you chain-smoke for a week. Then you come back and you try again.”
“What happens when he gives up?”
“People die… and sometimes… people are created.”
“Beth. Riddles? Huh?”
“Oh.” Beth grinned and covered her face so she could have the conversation she meant to have. “His family. When he gave up on them, they ended up dying because… he let them. Other times… he wasn’t careful. He wasn’t careful on purpose. He was… spreading misery.”
“How many kids?”
“A lot.”
“What about her, Beth?”
“She’s… a victim of her own genetics, Dad.” She dropped her hands to her feet where they were perched on the edge of her seat. “A mother so steeped in her own blue blood that she hid her child’s true parentage to have a secret. A father who wanted a child so badly with his wife that he didn’t even think about a girl he had a one-night stand with while on a bender. Then there’s the part of her that’s part of us. The blood.”
“Is that what this is?”
“I think she was unhinged to begin with but probably.”
“What are their chances?”
“Anybody’s guess, Dad.”
--
Alex yawned as he pushed open the doors. Try as he might, he could not convince his baby sister to stay behind so she was right on his heels. Alex listened to the situation as far as Ledford and Lauren could explain it. The situation was dire. There were news cameras in the parking lot and the phones were ringing and extra security had been brought in. The college administration were pacing the hallways, waiting for someone to give them a clue about what was going on. There was no way to cover up a shoot out at the senior dormitory, even with all the money that poured in from the rich families.
He held the fort when Mrs. Seyton was escorted into another room to be given an update and a very brief explanation for why she was summoned to the hospital. Lauren was in makeup, he held the line while she went to wash up. Gina sat with some kids waiting next to some guy Alex vaguely remembered from the last family crisis. Alex stared down the room at the other family members who had hopped on planes earlier in the day and were waiting, patiently, for news.
He looked up when the tall fellow loomed over him and held out his hand. “I’m Nat.”
“Alex.”
“You here for the FBI guy?”
“Um…” Alex blinked up at him. “I’m the um… representative for the unit…”
“So you are here for the FBI guy.” Nat nodded and took a seat next to him. “My dad was in that room.” He shrugged. “I… thought this was a no-brainer for him. Getting shot just means he’s down for a bit. I didn’t think he’d need surgery.”
Then it all fell into place. “They can still die, Nat. My mom is dead. It wasn’t a bullet, though. They can die.”
“Isn’t there something the others can do?”
“They’re on their way.”
Nat sat back to wait. He wasn’t worried. He wasn’t. He barely knew the guy. Hell, he had changed on him as soon as he thought he knew him. So what if Amy and Jamie loved the guy. George had moved out, he didn’t count, the traitor. He didn’t care if Zan made it. He didn’t. They had only come to make his mom calm the hell down. He sat there, staring at his knees until he felt her walk into the building. He looked up when she turned the corner with her dad. “Hey Beth.”
“Hey, Nat.” She sat next to him. “He’s fighting it. He’s hurt bad.”
“I can’t do what you do.”
“I know. That’s why we’re here.”
--
When Will woke up, all he heard was the beeping of his own heart from the monitor. He felt like he was floating. “That’s the opiates, sir. It’ll stop eventually.” He couldn’t quite open his eyes but he was sure he knew the blob sitting next to his bed. “You’re alive. Say thank you, Will.”
“Thank you, Will.”
“Maybe I fixed you up too good.”
Blinking, she slowly came into focus. “Did you leave my penis?”
“Tempted as I was to cut it off, or render you permanently impotent, no.” Beth propped her feet up on the bed. “Besides, as much as I like Agent Ledford… I can’t talk to her the way I can you.”
“What story did you give the doctors?”
“Let them do their work and I fixed you up the second they put you in ICU.”
“How many others got hurt?”
“A few.” She sighed and stared at him. “Crazy made it through surgery. Dad had to explain to her mother that a) he was not Satan’s father, b) that Satan made it through surgery and c) that Satan needed whatever was passing for a sanatorium these days.”
“They do not put people in sanatoriums. There are plenty of mental health facilities where she can get the help she needs.”
“They can’t cure alien-induced genetic crazy, Will. They just can’t.”
“Anyone else get hurt, Miss Sensitive?”
“Dad had a time with his other.” She took her feet down and leaned her elbows on the bed. “He’s still working on him.”
“Where did he get shot?”
“Chest, head, belly.” She shrugged. “I guess he was standing behind her or something.”
“You’re… kind of… nonchalant about somebody getting shot and maybe dying.”
“I think you need more morphine.”
“Beth.”
“It’s not like he’s a nice guy or anything.”
“He did us a favor by being the bait and now he might die.” Will tried to sit up but he couldn’t. He still hurt and he was still dizzy.
“You don’t know him the way I know him.” Beth bit out.
“You ever talk to anyone about your time in New York?”
“It was a training ground, Will. You had Quantico… I had New York City.”
“Did you… hurt people, Beth?”
“It happens.” She didn’t make eye contact. “Someday… I’ll do it on purpose and it will more than count as a dark mark on my soul.”
“Accident before?”
“I didn’t stop him and that makes it just as much my fault.”
--
Alex shut his phone and looked around the waiting room. One by one, families had gone on to visit their loved ones. The lack of fatalities had sent the college people on back to wherever they belonged.
Gina kept staring at him. She didn’t say a word. She had stopped mingling with other people and just stared at him. Alex stared back. She didn’t smile. He shrugged at her. “You’re a jerk.”
“Where did that come from?”
“You know.”
“You’re 11.”
“I still know you’re a jerk.”
“You sound like Mom.”
“Duh.”
“Gina.”
“When are we going to go see Grandma and Grampa?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then you do see that you are a jerk. I rest my case.” Gina hopped off her chair and ran to hug her Uncle Max.
--
Beth sat next to Seyton’s bed. It was a wonder the woman hadn’t completely snapped sooner. Seyton opened her eyes but her eyes didn’t see the room. Beth probed gently. “When did they launch the ships?”
“Decades ago. Energy sources have been an issue for centuries. They knew it was coming to this.”
“How far are they?”
“You will meet them.”
“How long?”
Seyton’s eyes rolled back in her head and Beth pulled back. After a moment, Seyton stopped seizing and Beth let the monitors function normally again. Beth reached over and touched her head for a moment before she rose to leave. “Sleep. It’s the best thing you can do.”
--
Max stood at the end of his clone’s bed. He was alive. Barely. Max could feel it. There was no saving the alien this time. Beth walked in a minute later with Nat. “He’s not getting better.”
“His aura’s dark.” Beth whispered. She turned to Nat. “I could help you say goodbye.”
“No.” Nat shook his head.
“Zan wants to say goodbye to you.” Max interjected before Beth could say the wrong thing.
Nat stared at the scars and new bandages and sat down. Beth took his head in her hands. “Relax, it’ll only hurt for a second.”
--
Liz set the coffee pot back on the warmer and joined her son at the table. “Up early?”
“Up late.” He shrugged and spun a quarter on the table. “Couldn’t sleep.” He endured the inevitable hand against his forehead and thumbs against the circles under his eyes. “Weird dreams.”
“Out-dreamed the dream catcher?”
“I guess.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“Not really. It was too… Kafka-esque.” He made a face at his invented word.
“Bug people?”
“Aliens.” Donna Jo offered from the doorway. “He was talking in his sleep… before he started pacing.”
“Alien dreams?” Liz frowned at her son and waited while Donna Jo settled herself with her own cup of coffee. “David.”
“I don’t know. Alien dreams.”
“David.” Liz pressed.
“He was asking someone why the spaces between galaxies were so vast.” Donna Jo made a face at him. “His words not mine.”
“Anything else?”
“I don’t know. It’s all kind of fuzzy and it’s fading.” He shrugged again.
“David…” Liz breathed in and out slowly. “You haven’t had a dream you remembered since you were four and out of the blue just shy of your 19th birthday… David… tell me.”
“Okay… so…” David stole Donna Jo’s coffee for a sip and made a face at its blandness. “I’m dreaming and then I’m on this ship, staring out the window… and I’m not me. I’m talking about space to someone behind me. The words are… young.”
“Then what happened?”
“The other person starts talking back. Scientific stuff. Star drifts and velocities and sublight and subspace… I couldn’t keep up. Then the young person I am asks…” He trailed off.
“He asked what real gravity was like.” Donna Jo supplied. “I was only getting half the conversation but it was involved. Definitely like a little kid. How long until we get there? What will we do when we get there? Will there be other people there? Will those people be friendly? Do you think we’ll meet him?”
“Meet who?” Liz flicked her gaze back to her son.
“The King of Antar.” David finally supplied. “The other half of that conversation… was probably a parent. We’ll get there when we get there. We’ll build a new life. Yes, there are people. Some will be friendly. No, it’s not likely he’ll be there or have time for us little people if he is. He’s not the one you really want to meet. The streams from home showed a new ruler. They say she’s the Sleeper.”
“David, that’s not a dream and you know it.” Liz took a minute to catch her breath. “You were dreamwalking.”
“I know.”
“They’re close enough for you to dreamwalk them.”
“What’s close? Between galaxies.” David slammed his fists on the table in an uncharacteristic burst of anger. “My whole life has been about Beth since she went crazy. Now, I can’t even dream without her being the center of it.”
“Sweetie, I know it feels that way now… once upon a time your brother and sisters had you as the center of the universe… I have not been the center of my own universe since I was 16. It’s a part of life. Your sister would give anything not to be the center of anyone’s universe except for maybe one…” She smoothed his hair back. “She doesn’t do it on purpose. It’s who she is and believe me. I’d rather her not be either… but she is.”
“Okay… I know we’re all dramatic with Beth is the sacred being from another planet but um… what does David’s dream mean? I mean really?” Donna Jo cut in.
“It means someone’s coming and we don’t know when.”
TBC
Re: The Fate of Destiny Part 179 CC/UC ADULT 06/06/10
The Fate of Destiny Part 179
Beth rode back from the airport with her dad, staring out the window the whole while. She cleared her throat when they hit town. “Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“Drop me at Gabriel’s… I have to tell him.”
Max pulled the car over and stared at the highway once he’d pulled to a stop. “Is that wise?”
“It’s my choice. I’m more than old enough to make it. I’ll be 21 soon. Gabriel and I have been through so much and we won’t survive if I don’t let him in soon.” Beth wiped at her eyes, her belly achingly empty.
“Why now?”
“Did you see?” She held her head in her hands. “Zan and his family. He loved that woman with his entire soul and she broke his heart into a thousand pieces. Shattered it for good because he thought she rejected him but he never really gave her the chance to understand. They spent a whole lifetime apart. Nat didn’t know his dad. Didn’t know what he was. I don’t want to raise my children that way.”
“Why are you talking about children?” Max took a breath. He felt like he was about to have a heart attack.
“Because, Dad. Because. Because I’m not a little girl anymore. I’m not crazy anymore. I’m not a virgin anymore and there will come a day when I’m engaged or I’m pregnant with a hybrid baby and Gabriel will need to know.”
“Why now?” Max repeated, fists pounding the steering wheel and pulse racing.
“Because it’s time.” Beth turned to face him. “I love Gabriel and I need him. I need him. I actually need him. I will not make it without him and if I want the kind of marriage that you and Mom have… I have to do it now. Now, while there’s still time for him to go. He won’t. I know he won’t but I have to know now.”
“Bethany, this is not—”
“A subject to take lightly. I know that. I know that. I know that! I am so much more alien than you ever were and I have to think about my future. My body is not whole. I want to be married and I want to have kids and I want them to be healthy and it will take planning and if you want that for me, you will support me in this.” Beth swallowed down her anger and lowered her voice. “It’s not really your decision. If you drive me home, I can just walk out. I can walk the rest of the way to Roswell from here. I’m just asking for a ride to save time.”
“How do you know he’s the one? You’ve broken up before.” Max focused on breathing.
“I knew it the minute I laid eyes on him. There was never going to be anyone else for me. If I hadn’t run away, we wouldn’t have broken up.” She growled. “Dad. It’s not your decision. I mean, who did you have to consult when you told Mom? And really, once you saved her life, what choice did you have?”
“Why now?”
“Because, Dad. I’m tired of hiding who I am from him. If he’s going to love me for who I am, he needs to know who I am and just why I had to lie all these years. I’ve caused him so much pain that he can’t trust me unless he has all of me.” When she met his eyes, he looked away and started the car. “That’s it? I expected this to go on for a while more.”
“You’re so much more articulate than I’ve ever been.” Max cleared his throat against tears sticking to his words. “Promise me that the kids you’re planning on haven’t been planted yet.”
“Dad.”
“I’m just getting used to being a grandfather to my oldest’s children…”
“Gabriel loves me, Dad. I can’t read his mind and I can’t feel his aura most of the time but I know. The human parts of me know.”
“He could freak out.”
“He could but he hasn’t freaked yet.”
--
Kat dropped her bag on the floor next to the bed. Alex and his wife were cleaning up breakfast, Gina in school, the baby napping… and Will resting in the guest bed in front of her. His eyes popped open for a second and then she was sitting next to him, brushing tears from her eyes and reaching for his chest just to feel the beat. That’s when his eyes snapped open. “Kat?”
“You scared the shit out of me.”
“Kat…”
“And I don’t forgive you. I don’t. You hurt me so deep that I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive you but I still love you. I don’t eat. I don’t sleep and just when I think I can go a day without thinking of you… I break down all over again.” She choked back the next sob. “Did Dad fix you?”
“Beth did.”
“That’s it for you. You’re trapped. You’re one of the ‘touched’.”
“That’s funny.”
“Will… I have been so alone without you, without Jolene… but I don’t want you back just because I miss you. I don’t just want a body to lay next to.”
“Kat…” Will reached up to dry her tears. “I quit drinking.”
“You think that will solve it?”
“It’ll solve a lot of it. The rest is up to me and your ability to trust me.”
“Trust. You know how I suck at that.”
“I know. Me too.”
--
Kyle leaned back against the wall and opened the letter. He smiled. His big sister away at college and her eye on Quantico. He laughed at her neuroses and had to admire her vigilance. Guns still scared her but she was working her way up to large grades and higher calibers. His bunkmate rattled the bed. “Cut it out!”
“Shove it!”
“Trying to read here.” Kyle called back down and went back to his mail. Another letter from his baby sister, complete with pictures of her and his nephew. His baby sister was going to be exactly like their mother and it was showing already in her 11 year old point of view. She was already running Alex the way Mom had. Poor Lynnette, competing with mini-Isabel.
“Valenti! Got your mail!” The letter landed on the foot of the bed.
Kyle leapt to catch it before it slid off. “Thanks.”
“You get a lot of mail, man.” His bunkmate stuck his head out of his bunk.
“Got a lot of family.”
--
Lauren walked away from her father’s grave. Her biological father. She had never thought to visit before now. She had pictures of him throughout his life from files collected by her service agents. Mason. She still had trouble with that name in her head. She was finished with her shoot and had to go somewhere. Why not New York… the nightmare version of that city was long gone.
Sitting down on a bench to wait for her ride, she nearly cried. A set of dead parents, a dead biological father, two living biological mothers… and a crazy half-sister. That’s what she had to call family. That and some weak biological links to a bunch of aliens. They were nice people but… they were newcomers after all this time and living in their web was exhausting.
Riding the shuttle to the airport, she found herself amongst middle-aged business types with briefcases and cell phones and laptops. It was just as well. She didn’t feel much like mingling. Then she caught the eye of a fellow about 50 or so. He tilted his head at her and consulted with a harried looking woman sitting next to him. After about ten minutes of that, they arrived at the airport. Lauren was moving through security when the man approached her. “Can I help you?”
“You’re the girl. The one that made all that fuss a few years back. Mason Burkhardt’s heir.”
“I was his daughter. I don’t know anything about being his heir or legacy or really even being his daughter.” She sniped at him and tossed her heels into a bucket at the scanner.
“I’m really sorry to bother you.” He tossed his jacket and shoes into the bucket behind hers. “I just… my company is still untangling some of his business.” He followed at a rapid clip though she stalked through security and jumped into her shoes before he could grab his things. That’s what his secretary was for. In socks, he chased her. “My name is Henry Brouchard. I worked for a firm that handled Mr. Burkhardt’s more… private affairs. These were things that were not in his last will and testament and have been barred from collection by his wife.”
“What?” Lauren whirled on him. “Why would you just find me now? In an airport? The entire country knows who I am.”
“Because we couldn’t make any contact that could be traced by Mrs. Burkhardt and you’re not as easy to contact as you think.”
“Well, I’m not the only heir. Okay?”
“What?” Henry followed quickly after her. “Miss Burkhardt, there’s a lot at stake here.”
“Look. I’m just trying to catch a flight out of here.”
“I would just like to have a conversation with you. We are talking about assets put on ice generations ago.” Henry watched her slow down as she approached her gate. “I don’t have access to any other family members. I know you have a half-aunt and several distant relatives through a great-aunt. The instructions were specific.”
“How specific?” Lauren groaned when she saw the expression on his face when his secretary caught up.
“Let’s take this to a quieter arena, shall we?”
“Why?”
“Let’s just say that um… Burkhardt isn’t really the legacy that most have been led to believe. The original Mason Burkhardt was very paranoid and knew that someday his secrets would be revealed or forgotten. It seems the later has happened. My firm is not in the habit of losing its business… but partners have changed and passed on and I’m the last one left with this information.”
“So… is there a deeper family secret that I’m not aware of?”
“Well, you were saying there’s another daughter?”
“She just got committed to a mental health facility. She’s not in a position to handle anymore family secrets.” Lauren sighed and shifted on her feet, eye on her gate as the minutes ticked by.
“Have you never heard the name Darryl Morton?”
--
Beth took a deep breath and stared down at her boyfriend. They were on such tenuous terms but it was now or never. “I’m ready to let you in. All the way in.”
“Okay…” Gabriel lifted an eyebrow. “I thought you were already all in.”
“It’s just that there’s this one thing that you don’t know about me.”
“What’s there not to know?”
“It’s… where my family is from.” Beth cleared her throat.
“I know your dad is adopted and everyone knows where your mom is from.” Gabriel stopped talking when he saw the expression on her face. “Sweetie?”
“My dad is not from around here.”
“I know about the whole Mason Burkhardt thing… everyone kind of wonders why your dad didn’t come forward as an heir to the family fortune.”
“You’re only half right on that score… it’s more the other half of my dad’s biological tree that I’m talking about.”
“Who was his mom? Some actress? Some politician’s daughter? The maid?”
“Gabriel. Shut up.” Beth shut her eyes and called upon her mother’s strength. “Do you remember that night we spent on that mesa?”
“Yeah.”
Her eyes opened. “I only told you half the truth about what made me sick. The voices.”
“Are they back?”
“No, not really but… I’m not schizoaffective. I’m not DID. The voices I hear are real.” Beth saw his eyes cloud with confusion. “I have these abilities. Theses extrasensory abilities to heal injury, to manipulate matter at molecular levels and to enter and observe consciousness of people around me.”
“Is there a camera?”
“No. I’m telling you. I am an alien.”
TBC
Beth rode back from the airport with her dad, staring out the window the whole while. She cleared her throat when they hit town. “Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“Drop me at Gabriel’s… I have to tell him.”
Max pulled the car over and stared at the highway once he’d pulled to a stop. “Is that wise?”
“It’s my choice. I’m more than old enough to make it. I’ll be 21 soon. Gabriel and I have been through so much and we won’t survive if I don’t let him in soon.” Beth wiped at her eyes, her belly achingly empty.
“Why now?”
“Did you see?” She held her head in her hands. “Zan and his family. He loved that woman with his entire soul and she broke his heart into a thousand pieces. Shattered it for good because he thought she rejected him but he never really gave her the chance to understand. They spent a whole lifetime apart. Nat didn’t know his dad. Didn’t know what he was. I don’t want to raise my children that way.”
“Why are you talking about children?” Max took a breath. He felt like he was about to have a heart attack.
“Because, Dad. Because. Because I’m not a little girl anymore. I’m not crazy anymore. I’m not a virgin anymore and there will come a day when I’m engaged or I’m pregnant with a hybrid baby and Gabriel will need to know.”
“Why now?” Max repeated, fists pounding the steering wheel and pulse racing.
“Because it’s time.” Beth turned to face him. “I love Gabriel and I need him. I need him. I actually need him. I will not make it without him and if I want the kind of marriage that you and Mom have… I have to do it now. Now, while there’s still time for him to go. He won’t. I know he won’t but I have to know now.”
“Bethany, this is not—”
“A subject to take lightly. I know that. I know that. I know that! I am so much more alien than you ever were and I have to think about my future. My body is not whole. I want to be married and I want to have kids and I want them to be healthy and it will take planning and if you want that for me, you will support me in this.” Beth swallowed down her anger and lowered her voice. “It’s not really your decision. If you drive me home, I can just walk out. I can walk the rest of the way to Roswell from here. I’m just asking for a ride to save time.”
“How do you know he’s the one? You’ve broken up before.” Max focused on breathing.
“I knew it the minute I laid eyes on him. There was never going to be anyone else for me. If I hadn’t run away, we wouldn’t have broken up.” She growled. “Dad. It’s not your decision. I mean, who did you have to consult when you told Mom? And really, once you saved her life, what choice did you have?”
“Why now?”
“Because, Dad. I’m tired of hiding who I am from him. If he’s going to love me for who I am, he needs to know who I am and just why I had to lie all these years. I’ve caused him so much pain that he can’t trust me unless he has all of me.” When she met his eyes, he looked away and started the car. “That’s it? I expected this to go on for a while more.”
“You’re so much more articulate than I’ve ever been.” Max cleared his throat against tears sticking to his words. “Promise me that the kids you’re planning on haven’t been planted yet.”
“Dad.”
“I’m just getting used to being a grandfather to my oldest’s children…”
“Gabriel loves me, Dad. I can’t read his mind and I can’t feel his aura most of the time but I know. The human parts of me know.”
“He could freak out.”
“He could but he hasn’t freaked yet.”
--
Kat dropped her bag on the floor next to the bed. Alex and his wife were cleaning up breakfast, Gina in school, the baby napping… and Will resting in the guest bed in front of her. His eyes popped open for a second and then she was sitting next to him, brushing tears from her eyes and reaching for his chest just to feel the beat. That’s when his eyes snapped open. “Kat?”
“You scared the shit out of me.”
“Kat…”
“And I don’t forgive you. I don’t. You hurt me so deep that I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive you but I still love you. I don’t eat. I don’t sleep and just when I think I can go a day without thinking of you… I break down all over again.” She choked back the next sob. “Did Dad fix you?”
“Beth did.”
“That’s it for you. You’re trapped. You’re one of the ‘touched’.”
“That’s funny.”
“Will… I have been so alone without you, without Jolene… but I don’t want you back just because I miss you. I don’t just want a body to lay next to.”
“Kat…” Will reached up to dry her tears. “I quit drinking.”
“You think that will solve it?”
“It’ll solve a lot of it. The rest is up to me and your ability to trust me.”
“Trust. You know how I suck at that.”
“I know. Me too.”
--
Kyle leaned back against the wall and opened the letter. He smiled. His big sister away at college and her eye on Quantico. He laughed at her neuroses and had to admire her vigilance. Guns still scared her but she was working her way up to large grades and higher calibers. His bunkmate rattled the bed. “Cut it out!”
“Shove it!”
“Trying to read here.” Kyle called back down and went back to his mail. Another letter from his baby sister, complete with pictures of her and his nephew. His baby sister was going to be exactly like their mother and it was showing already in her 11 year old point of view. She was already running Alex the way Mom had. Poor Lynnette, competing with mini-Isabel.
“Valenti! Got your mail!” The letter landed on the foot of the bed.
Kyle leapt to catch it before it slid off. “Thanks.”
“You get a lot of mail, man.” His bunkmate stuck his head out of his bunk.
“Got a lot of family.”
--
Lauren walked away from her father’s grave. Her biological father. She had never thought to visit before now. She had pictures of him throughout his life from files collected by her service agents. Mason. She still had trouble with that name in her head. She was finished with her shoot and had to go somewhere. Why not New York… the nightmare version of that city was long gone.
Sitting down on a bench to wait for her ride, she nearly cried. A set of dead parents, a dead biological father, two living biological mothers… and a crazy half-sister. That’s what she had to call family. That and some weak biological links to a bunch of aliens. They were nice people but… they were newcomers after all this time and living in their web was exhausting.
Riding the shuttle to the airport, she found herself amongst middle-aged business types with briefcases and cell phones and laptops. It was just as well. She didn’t feel much like mingling. Then she caught the eye of a fellow about 50 or so. He tilted his head at her and consulted with a harried looking woman sitting next to him. After about ten minutes of that, they arrived at the airport. Lauren was moving through security when the man approached her. “Can I help you?”
“You’re the girl. The one that made all that fuss a few years back. Mason Burkhardt’s heir.”
“I was his daughter. I don’t know anything about being his heir or legacy or really even being his daughter.” She sniped at him and tossed her heels into a bucket at the scanner.
“I’m really sorry to bother you.” He tossed his jacket and shoes into the bucket behind hers. “I just… my company is still untangling some of his business.” He followed at a rapid clip though she stalked through security and jumped into her shoes before he could grab his things. That’s what his secretary was for. In socks, he chased her. “My name is Henry Brouchard. I worked for a firm that handled Mr. Burkhardt’s more… private affairs. These were things that were not in his last will and testament and have been barred from collection by his wife.”
“What?” Lauren whirled on him. “Why would you just find me now? In an airport? The entire country knows who I am.”
“Because we couldn’t make any contact that could be traced by Mrs. Burkhardt and you’re not as easy to contact as you think.”
“Well, I’m not the only heir. Okay?”
“What?” Henry followed quickly after her. “Miss Burkhardt, there’s a lot at stake here.”
“Look. I’m just trying to catch a flight out of here.”
“I would just like to have a conversation with you. We are talking about assets put on ice generations ago.” Henry watched her slow down as she approached her gate. “I don’t have access to any other family members. I know you have a half-aunt and several distant relatives through a great-aunt. The instructions were specific.”
“How specific?” Lauren groaned when she saw the expression on his face when his secretary caught up.
“Let’s take this to a quieter arena, shall we?”
“Why?”
“Let’s just say that um… Burkhardt isn’t really the legacy that most have been led to believe. The original Mason Burkhardt was very paranoid and knew that someday his secrets would be revealed or forgotten. It seems the later has happened. My firm is not in the habit of losing its business… but partners have changed and passed on and I’m the last one left with this information.”
“So… is there a deeper family secret that I’m not aware of?”
“Well, you were saying there’s another daughter?”
“She just got committed to a mental health facility. She’s not in a position to handle anymore family secrets.” Lauren sighed and shifted on her feet, eye on her gate as the minutes ticked by.
“Have you never heard the name Darryl Morton?”
--
Beth took a deep breath and stared down at her boyfriend. They were on such tenuous terms but it was now or never. “I’m ready to let you in. All the way in.”
“Okay…” Gabriel lifted an eyebrow. “I thought you were already all in.”
“It’s just that there’s this one thing that you don’t know about me.”
“What’s there not to know?”
“It’s… where my family is from.” Beth cleared her throat.
“I know your dad is adopted and everyone knows where your mom is from.” Gabriel stopped talking when he saw the expression on her face. “Sweetie?”
“My dad is not from around here.”
“I know about the whole Mason Burkhardt thing… everyone kind of wonders why your dad didn’t come forward as an heir to the family fortune.”
“You’re only half right on that score… it’s more the other half of my dad’s biological tree that I’m talking about.”
“Who was his mom? Some actress? Some politician’s daughter? The maid?”
“Gabriel. Shut up.” Beth shut her eyes and called upon her mother’s strength. “Do you remember that night we spent on that mesa?”
“Yeah.”
Her eyes opened. “I only told you half the truth about what made me sick. The voices.”
“Are they back?”
“No, not really but… I’m not schizoaffective. I’m not DID. The voices I hear are real.” Beth saw his eyes cloud with confusion. “I have these abilities. Theses extrasensory abilities to heal injury, to manipulate matter at molecular levels and to enter and observe consciousness of people around me.”
“Is there a camera?”
“No. I’m telling you. I am an alien.”
TBC
Re: The Fate of Destiny Part 180 CC/UC ADULT 07/11/10
The Fate of Destiny Part 180
Gabriel took a deep breath and let it out, then did it again. Then held his hand up so he could do it again. “I’m supposed to believe that you’re part alien and you have superpowers.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“So you’re not an alien.”
“No, I am totally an alien but they’re not superpowers. I don’t fly… at least… I don’t think I can fly.” Beth shook her head to keep her mind from wandering along that tangent. “Technically everything I can do is within the realm of human abilities but I use more of my brain than other people.”
“How much more?”
“Nearly all of it. There’s still room for growth but… it’s pretty significant.” She glanced around and picked up his favorite shirt. She waved her hand over it and turned it bright pink and tossed it at him. “Molecular manipulation is a breeze but I can do some other pretty intense and invasive stuff.”
“Like what?”
“I can read most people’s minds… that’s kind of what had put me over the edge way back. I couldn’t shut it out… but now it’s totally my choice.”
“You can read my mind?” Gabriel stared at her.
“Well no… not yours, actually. I can’t read yours unless you’re… focused on a single thought.”
“So you have read my mind.”
“Not often. You’re always really busy and you think about a bunch of stuff like all the time.”
“When have you read my mind? I mean, I’m not sure I believe this but… I could definitely tell if you knew something that I had never told you.”
“Do you remember a day back in high school when we were getting pretty hot and heavy in your room?”
--
Max looked over his youngest son. “So, dreaming but not dreaming.”
“Maybe it was a fluke. Maybe it was just random junk from my brain. I watch a lot of crappy television.” David shrugged him off. Sterling followed him around the kitchen while he made a sandwich.
“Papa Max!” Donna rushed in tugging on a shoe and attempting to put on an earring. “I’m not gonna say don’t wait up but…”
“We’ll be late.” Chuck appeared after her a moment later, he shook Max’s hand. “Not late… like 3 or anything but late.”
Max nodded and noted how David had begun slamming his sandwich together with force. “Let’s say that 2 am is when I tend to worry.”
“Okay.” Donna hopped out of the room to find Liz.
Chuck cleared his throat and turned to Max. “That thing we talked about a few weeks ago… I’m… Well…”
“Thundercats are go?” Max clapped the young man on the shoulder. “So, there might even be a later night than you’re planning.”
“Possibly. Depends on how it goes.”
David grabbed his sandwich and headed for the backdoor. Max caught him by the collar before Donna Jo could rush back in. He waved off the couple then steered David to the table. A flick of David’s wrist sent his sandwich meat into Sterling’s waiting mouth and then he proceeded to tear pieces of the remainder and shove them into his mouth one by one.
Max sat down across the table. “You knew this day was coming.”
“Yeah.”
“You shouldn’t have been with her in the first place.”
“I know.”
“She’s happy.”
“Yeah.” David nodded to his chest. “I don’t have to like it.”
“No, you don’t. Back to the original subject, Davey. These dreams. Was it just the once?”
“No…” He smashed the last bit of sandwich into his mouth and chewed ferociously. “It’s been a couple of months. Last night were the strongest they’ve ever been. It felt kind of what Beth said she felt when she was reading people’s minds. Like I was there but I wasn’t. I wasn’t awake. I can’t do it when I’m awake… I tried once.”
--
Lauren walked into the room, vault… whatever the hell it was in the basement of a nondescript building that housed nothing but rent-controlled apartments and a locked subbasement. She had followed the instructions carefully and discovered that absolutely no one had entered the subbasement in a very long time based on the dust and the deep footprints she left behind. The code had been simple. A date. One she had only known because she’d read a journal that belonged to an aunt of Liz’s.
The room was dark but flipping a switch inside the door had lit up panels that lined the entire room. Rows of filing cabinets. The first was old documents. Birth certificates for Darryl Morton and his wife, along with their marriage certificate. Clipping from an old newspaper that this couple had gone missing following an elopement that some thought might have been because she was pregnant. It was a history of a couple that didn’t exist after July 4, 1947. She sat on the floor with the records and reeled. These were her great-grandparents and they had had a whole other life before being abducted, literally. Report cards, awards, prom photos. Families that they had walked away from.
The next cabinet was something she was more familiar with. Government documents that detailed what was known about “the event” and everything they had learned in the meanwhile. It was very little, even over time. The directors left in charge of the operation had given it little merit until 1999. The documents that had been submitted and/or retrieved regarding that experiment had been heavily marked with black. The documents died off after 2003. The next cabinet had been a list of government officials who knew intimate details of the crash and how many had been paid to keep their silence… those numbers eventually dwindled.
Lauren glanced at her watch and made a call to delay her flight another day while she continued to read from yet another cabinet. Artifacts. Rumors of items that had been removed from the original crash site and where they had ended up… some of them were in cases in the room. Bought at high prices from people who did not know what they had. Then there was one that caught her eye. It flashed if she watched it long enough. Intervals that were nearly an hour apart. She was fascinated by it even as she continued reading about the lives of people who had come before and had passed on before her lifetime. A millionaire in Arizona, a scientist in New Mexico… and the lives of the Burkhardts of Florida. Four individuals with a secret they shared of a few days they spent aboard a space ship in early 1947. Postulations of a fifth that was never recovered. The maps! Maps of a graveyard in a small French province.
“Great-grampa… you were a special kind of freak.” Lauren whispered to herself as she opened yet another cabinet stuffed full of files. She had to wonder. Some of the files outdated his lifetime if she held the count right. Who had kept collecting these after he died?
Then she saw the case. She flicked it open and her eyes widened. Lights flashed on three black… boxes or some sort of geometric shape she couldn’t remember the name of.
--
Gabriel sat and thought it over. It made a kind of sense… if there was a kind of sense that was also insanity. Then he really started thinking about it. He knew why he was the way he was. A man without a culture because he was labeled by his last name but twelve generations separated from that culture and thoroughly absorbed in another culture. Judged by those who admired his separation, by those who shunned his separation, by those who could not comprehend the separation. Gabriel had always felt like a half-breed even if he technically wasn’t. American culture fighting with Mexican blood. Hell, aside from history class, he had no clue what Mexico had to do with anything.
Here was Bethany. Bethany telling him that not only is she a half-breed but that other half is not just some different shade of skin or some ancestral country that no one remembers… A whole other race of beings. Beings who can manipulate molecules with a touch and a thought. “If you can heal yourself, what happened when you got sick?”
“That’s a long story.” She whispered.
“Why tell me now, Beth?”
“Cause I want you in my life and I can’t hide it forever. My life could be short. We’ve already had too many close calls. I don’t want to waste it by hiding from you.”
He stared at her. “If we hadn’t lost the baby, would you have told me then?”
“Probably.”
“So, why now?”
“Cause I’ve only just scratched the surface with you. There is so much more for you to know.”
“How much more?” He waited but she said nothing. The expression on her face was the same one she’d worn the day she’d come to tell him the bad news about a thing he wished he’d known about from the beginning. “How much more?”
--
Liz leaned on her husband as they watched the stars drift across the sky. Liz liked that phrase even if it was wrong. The earth rotated faster than stars “drifted”. He was dying for a cigarette but he wouldn’t pull one out until she went inside. “Did you get the report from Agent Ledford?”
“I did.”
“Alien tracking devices.”
“Yep.”
“Concerned?”
“Nope.”
“Liar.”
“You are correct.” He kissed her head. “I trust Will’s people.”
“You forgive him?”
“No, but apparently what I think doesn’t matter to these girls.”
“You sound like your dad.” Liz squeezed his hand. “It’s a compliment.”
“I know.” Max laid his head on hers. “Beth’s not back yet. How do you think it’s going?”
“It’s going badly. She waited so long.” Liz exhaled harshly. “I do not envy that child. Not for her power, not for her burdens, not for her youth. I would rather have had my life than hers… and mine had its suckier moments.”
“Love you, too.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I do.”
“What’s going to happen now?”
“We wait.”
TBC
Gabriel took a deep breath and let it out, then did it again. Then held his hand up so he could do it again. “I’m supposed to believe that you’re part alien and you have superpowers.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“So you’re not an alien.”
“No, I am totally an alien but they’re not superpowers. I don’t fly… at least… I don’t think I can fly.” Beth shook her head to keep her mind from wandering along that tangent. “Technically everything I can do is within the realm of human abilities but I use more of my brain than other people.”
“How much more?”
“Nearly all of it. There’s still room for growth but… it’s pretty significant.” She glanced around and picked up his favorite shirt. She waved her hand over it and turned it bright pink and tossed it at him. “Molecular manipulation is a breeze but I can do some other pretty intense and invasive stuff.”
“Like what?”
“I can read most people’s minds… that’s kind of what had put me over the edge way back. I couldn’t shut it out… but now it’s totally my choice.”
“You can read my mind?” Gabriel stared at her.
“Well no… not yours, actually. I can’t read yours unless you’re… focused on a single thought.”
“So you have read my mind.”
“Not often. You’re always really busy and you think about a bunch of stuff like all the time.”
“When have you read my mind? I mean, I’m not sure I believe this but… I could definitely tell if you knew something that I had never told you.”
“Do you remember a day back in high school when we were getting pretty hot and heavy in your room?”
--
Max looked over his youngest son. “So, dreaming but not dreaming.”
“Maybe it was a fluke. Maybe it was just random junk from my brain. I watch a lot of crappy television.” David shrugged him off. Sterling followed him around the kitchen while he made a sandwich.
“Papa Max!” Donna rushed in tugging on a shoe and attempting to put on an earring. “I’m not gonna say don’t wait up but…”
“We’ll be late.” Chuck appeared after her a moment later, he shook Max’s hand. “Not late… like 3 or anything but late.”
Max nodded and noted how David had begun slamming his sandwich together with force. “Let’s say that 2 am is when I tend to worry.”
“Okay.” Donna hopped out of the room to find Liz.
Chuck cleared his throat and turned to Max. “That thing we talked about a few weeks ago… I’m… Well…”
“Thundercats are go?” Max clapped the young man on the shoulder. “So, there might even be a later night than you’re planning.”
“Possibly. Depends on how it goes.”
David grabbed his sandwich and headed for the backdoor. Max caught him by the collar before Donna Jo could rush back in. He waved off the couple then steered David to the table. A flick of David’s wrist sent his sandwich meat into Sterling’s waiting mouth and then he proceeded to tear pieces of the remainder and shove them into his mouth one by one.
Max sat down across the table. “You knew this day was coming.”
“Yeah.”
“You shouldn’t have been with her in the first place.”
“I know.”
“She’s happy.”
“Yeah.” David nodded to his chest. “I don’t have to like it.”
“No, you don’t. Back to the original subject, Davey. These dreams. Was it just the once?”
“No…” He smashed the last bit of sandwich into his mouth and chewed ferociously. “It’s been a couple of months. Last night were the strongest they’ve ever been. It felt kind of what Beth said she felt when she was reading people’s minds. Like I was there but I wasn’t. I wasn’t awake. I can’t do it when I’m awake… I tried once.”
--
Lauren walked into the room, vault… whatever the hell it was in the basement of a nondescript building that housed nothing but rent-controlled apartments and a locked subbasement. She had followed the instructions carefully and discovered that absolutely no one had entered the subbasement in a very long time based on the dust and the deep footprints she left behind. The code had been simple. A date. One she had only known because she’d read a journal that belonged to an aunt of Liz’s.
The room was dark but flipping a switch inside the door had lit up panels that lined the entire room. Rows of filing cabinets. The first was old documents. Birth certificates for Darryl Morton and his wife, along with their marriage certificate. Clipping from an old newspaper that this couple had gone missing following an elopement that some thought might have been because she was pregnant. It was a history of a couple that didn’t exist after July 4, 1947. She sat on the floor with the records and reeled. These were her great-grandparents and they had had a whole other life before being abducted, literally. Report cards, awards, prom photos. Families that they had walked away from.
The next cabinet was something she was more familiar with. Government documents that detailed what was known about “the event” and everything they had learned in the meanwhile. It was very little, even over time. The directors left in charge of the operation had given it little merit until 1999. The documents that had been submitted and/or retrieved regarding that experiment had been heavily marked with black. The documents died off after 2003. The next cabinet had been a list of government officials who knew intimate details of the crash and how many had been paid to keep their silence… those numbers eventually dwindled.
Lauren glanced at her watch and made a call to delay her flight another day while she continued to read from yet another cabinet. Artifacts. Rumors of items that had been removed from the original crash site and where they had ended up… some of them were in cases in the room. Bought at high prices from people who did not know what they had. Then there was one that caught her eye. It flashed if she watched it long enough. Intervals that were nearly an hour apart. She was fascinated by it even as she continued reading about the lives of people who had come before and had passed on before her lifetime. A millionaire in Arizona, a scientist in New Mexico… and the lives of the Burkhardts of Florida. Four individuals with a secret they shared of a few days they spent aboard a space ship in early 1947. Postulations of a fifth that was never recovered. The maps! Maps of a graveyard in a small French province.
“Great-grampa… you were a special kind of freak.” Lauren whispered to herself as she opened yet another cabinet stuffed full of files. She had to wonder. Some of the files outdated his lifetime if she held the count right. Who had kept collecting these after he died?
Then she saw the case. She flicked it open and her eyes widened. Lights flashed on three black… boxes or some sort of geometric shape she couldn’t remember the name of.
--
Gabriel sat and thought it over. It made a kind of sense… if there was a kind of sense that was also insanity. Then he really started thinking about it. He knew why he was the way he was. A man without a culture because he was labeled by his last name but twelve generations separated from that culture and thoroughly absorbed in another culture. Judged by those who admired his separation, by those who shunned his separation, by those who could not comprehend the separation. Gabriel had always felt like a half-breed even if he technically wasn’t. American culture fighting with Mexican blood. Hell, aside from history class, he had no clue what Mexico had to do with anything.
Here was Bethany. Bethany telling him that not only is she a half-breed but that other half is not just some different shade of skin or some ancestral country that no one remembers… A whole other race of beings. Beings who can manipulate molecules with a touch and a thought. “If you can heal yourself, what happened when you got sick?”
“That’s a long story.” She whispered.
“Why tell me now, Beth?”
“Cause I want you in my life and I can’t hide it forever. My life could be short. We’ve already had too many close calls. I don’t want to waste it by hiding from you.”
He stared at her. “If we hadn’t lost the baby, would you have told me then?”
“Probably.”
“So, why now?”
“Cause I’ve only just scratched the surface with you. There is so much more for you to know.”
“How much more?” He waited but she said nothing. The expression on her face was the same one she’d worn the day she’d come to tell him the bad news about a thing he wished he’d known about from the beginning. “How much more?”
--
Liz leaned on her husband as they watched the stars drift across the sky. Liz liked that phrase even if it was wrong. The earth rotated faster than stars “drifted”. He was dying for a cigarette but he wouldn’t pull one out until she went inside. “Did you get the report from Agent Ledford?”
“I did.”
“Alien tracking devices.”
“Yep.”
“Concerned?”
“Nope.”
“Liar.”
“You are correct.” He kissed her head. “I trust Will’s people.”
“You forgive him?”
“No, but apparently what I think doesn’t matter to these girls.”
“You sound like your dad.” Liz squeezed his hand. “It’s a compliment.”
“I know.” Max laid his head on hers. “Beth’s not back yet. How do you think it’s going?”
“It’s going badly. She waited so long.” Liz exhaled harshly. “I do not envy that child. Not for her power, not for her burdens, not for her youth. I would rather have had my life than hers… and mine had its suckier moments.”
“Love you, too.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I do.”
“What’s going to happen now?”
“We wait.”
TBC
Re: The Fate of Destiny Part 181A CC/UC ADULT 08/27/10
AN: Song in this part is Closer by Bottlefly
The Fate of Destiny Part 181
2042 – Part A
Beth endured the kiss on her head before her father walked away to the next patient. She limped over to the admit desk to begin charting her rounds. She plugged her portable player into the speaker at her desk and started typing. Gabriel had been up with Isaiah all night and it was her turn tonight. She’d need to nap as soon as she got in so that she’d be ready for the 3 am walking. She ignored the older nurses bickering behind her. The director position had opened up and as much as she’d like to put in for it, her life could not handle such a structured job. The old director had always been on her about calling off. Gabriel’s job with the paper was much more manageable as he could work from home if he had to. She was ready for Isaiah to sleep through the night.
--
Kat rolled her eyes and prayed her mother would give up soon. “I just don’t think kids are in the picture for me. It’s not fair to a child given my schedule.”
“You could try it.” Liz pressed.
“Mom. I can’t just give a kid back.”
“But you can change your job.”
“No, I can’t. This is exactly what I want to be doing and I will not change that.” Kat took a breath and let it out slowly. “Mom, it’s not that kids aren’t great but… I just don’t feel that urge.”
“Sweetie…”
“Dan and Beth have kids. I don’t need to have kids… Hell, I’ll bet Davey has a kid or two out there that he doesn’t even know about.”
“Oh, Kat, don’t even give me that thought.” Liz sighed heavily. “It will be an option for you far longer than it is for any other woman.”
“I know.”
--
David pulled his shirt on and left his phone number next to the bed before ambling to his own dorm room. Flopping on his bed, he focused on the dreamcatcher. All he really wanted was some sleep.
--
Alex lifted an eyebrow at his sister when she snuck into the house with a new bandage on her arm. “What did you get this time?”
“Jesus, you scared me.” She threw her keys at him.
“Good. I’ve been terrified all night.” He set down his coffee and looked her over. Their mother would have had a fit if she were alive.
“I’m 20, you know.”
“Yes, I am aware, Gina. I’m painfully aware.”
“The kids asleep?” She picked her keys up off the ground and set about taking off her shoes.
“Why yes, the kids are asleep. You said you’d be home by midnight.”
“I said I’d be home late.” She pointed out. “Again… I’m 20.”
Alex set his coffee down on the table and ran his hands over his face. “We had an agreement, Gina. I’m paying for your school, your clothes, your car. You don’t pay rent, food, anything.”
“I’m following the rules. You never said I had a curfew.” She protested.
“I did say you had to keep your grades up.” He picked up the report card that had come in the mail. “Academic suspension. Why?”
--
Berty pulled off her huge earrings and tossed them on the desk. “Why do I always have to be the hooker?”
“But you do it so well.” Her partner grinned at her. “Besides, my ass is too big for the skirt.
“But your boobs are bigger.” She grinned back. He scowled and nodded to the other room. “What?”
“The big red phone.”
“What?”
“Jesus, you really are a fetus.” He turned fully to her. “The big red phone was a direct line in the…” Saw her eyes glaze over. “Forget it. Be ignorant. They want you for your other unit, whatever unit that is.”
“Finally.” She tossed her heels at him and pointed to the earrings. “Don’t forget to log those in for evidence this time.”
--
Liz checked all the windows and doors. Her big empty house. Kids all gone. Parents all gone. Shelves of scrapbooks in her den. She glanced at the deed to Diane’s house but Max had not decided what he wanted to do with it. Sell it, rent it… Liz knew he really wanted to give it to Beth and Gabriel but also knew that Beth wouldn’t take it. She’d asked him about Kyle but he moved around so much with his unit that it didn’t make sense, he’d said. Kat wouldn’t come home. Dan wouldn’t come home. Davey WOULD NOT COME HOME. David, she mentally corrected herself. He was taking his time with a degree in psychology and threatened to switch to psychiatry.
She curled up in her chair in the living room. The nursery was empty save for some extra clothes that Beth had left behind a few weeks ago when Isaiah had stayed the week. Maybe a toy or two that Dan and Em’s kids had left the last time they had visited. Maybe Christmas.
When Max got home, she was flipping through the photo album at the kitchen table with a glass of wine. He tsked her. “Your meds.”
“I know. Just felt like wallowing.” She turned her face up for a kiss.
“Have you gotten any new letter from Kyle?”
“Yes.” She held it up where she was about to tuck it into the rest that Max hadn’t read himself. “He says he’s test piloting a plane that’s going up another level, whatever that means. Most of it was blacked out.”
“Then how’d you get that much?” Max stroked her gray hair out of her face.
“Off the paper. He touched that himself.”
“So how high is this plane going?”
“Sub-orbit?”
“They are getting closer aren’t they.”
“They are.” She looked up at him. “Beth?”
“Tired and limping. She sprained her ankle on a baby toy.” Max grinned at her small smile. “You’ll see the baby on Sunday. She promised.”
“Is she going after the director position?”
“No. She’s refusing. Says it’s not fair to the others if she takes it and then cuts out on them.”
“She’s so afraid of permanence.” Liz groaned.
“Is that psych-talk?”
“Yes, but it’s true.”
“She’s got to live her own life and make her own decisions.”
“Did I fight this much with my mom?”
“For a very long time.”
--
Beth let her husband settle his weight on top of her, he was close, she could feel it. She couldn’t focus, certain that any moment their little devil would wake up. Then his thoughts began to bombard her tired brain, she let go and felt every blessed thing. His words in her ears. “You with me, sweetie? Sweetie, are you with me?”
If I had the ways to show you, we could fly away like a satellite, floating out in space. If I had the means to reach you, I could celebrate with a carnival dancing on parade. Dancing on parade.
I wanna get closer to you. I wanna walk around inside your shoes. I wanna get closer, closer than you’ve ever seen. I wanna be inside you . Closer to you. I wanna be the blood inside your veins. I wanna get closer, closer than you’ve ever seen. I wanna get inside you.
Seems you hide behind the makeup, turn it all around, like a circus clown laughing at the crowd. Seems to me that when I call you a thousand times a day. You just snatch up the phone, throw my dreams away. Throw my dreams away.
I wanna get closer to you. I wanna walk around inside your shoes. I wanna get closer, closer than you’ve ever seen. I wanna be inside you . Closer to you. I wanna be the blood inside your veins. I wanna get closer, closer than you’ve ever seen. I wanna get inside you.
I wanna get closer to you. I wanna walk around inside your shoes. I wanna get closer, closer than you’ve ever seen. I wanna be inside you . Closer to you. I wanna be the blood inside your veins. I wanna get closer, closer than you’ve ever seen. I wanna get inside you.
Beth didn’t move for a long time. Listened to Gabriel soothe Isaiah when he woke up, even though it was her turn. She finally got up and cleaned up so she could join her men in the living room of their small apartment. She curled up next to them on the couch. Gabriel reached down and pulled her leg up so he could examine the swelling on her ankle. “Why won’t you heal that?”
“Never had a sprained ankle before.” She whispered into his shoulder as she stroked their son’s foot.
“Did you eat today?”
“Yes.”
“Liar.”
“I so did.” She kissed his lips. “Ask my dad. He paid for it.”
“So spoiled.” He shifted the dozing baby in his arms. “What’s on your mind?”’
“Dunno. All kinds of spacey today.”
--
Davey leapt to his feet, still half-asleep, and searched for his shoes. He didn’t know if he’d found them before he was running through campus, off campus and into the streets of Roswell. It took him nearly 20 minutes of hard sprinting but he ended up on his block and found his father in the backyard sneaking a cigarette. “Dad!”
“David? What’s wrong?”
“Something’s wrong with the ship. I don’t know what’s going on but something is massively wrong.”
--
Lauren watched the monitors with the rest of the team. They had found the object some years before, moving on its own momentum. It had slowed when it had reached the outer solar system but had been moving on a trajectory. Now, it appeared to be… drifting. Berty walked in a moment later and stared. “Is it dead in the water?”
“Too far away to tell.” A scientist spoke up. “From our scopes, it’s not moving forward or backward. It is still possible that while the engines are off, that the life support is on.”
“Is it in trouble?” Lauren turned to the team.
“Quite possibly. It’s obviously a very advanced craft, however… in any voyage, a number of things could go wrong. If propulsion is down, it’s not getting any nearer to Earth. If it still has life support, the inhabitants are safe but only for as long as life support sustains their numbers.” He looked to the others. “Anyone else?”
“Do we have a guess at the numbers?”
“It’s a one-way trip, every time.” Berty cleared her throat. “Every time. This time, it’s a life boat sent with limited resources. Even with their advances in technology since the last ship they sent.”
“When was that?”
“1960s.” Lauren answered. “Any adult who left their planet, would be very aged by now.”
“Wouldn’t they have stasis?”
“What about a powersource?”
“What are the numbers?”
Berty sat to exchange a glance with Lauren, who was sitting with her arms crossed. They shrugged at each other while the scientists kept asking questions that didn’t have answers.
--
Liz paced the floor with Isaiah. Gabriel stood with his hands on his head. Beth, David and Max spoke in a flurry of words. Liz retreated to the nursery to rock the baby to sleep while they made a plan. Gabriel joined her a few minutes later. “It’s go-time, huh.”
“Seems that way.” Liz nodded and watched his face. “Is she getting better?” He shrugged. “My mom had post-partum with me. It’s partly why they never had more kids. She was afraid to go through it again.”
“It’s more than that.”
“I know.”
“It’s more than post-partum, Liz. She’s distancing herself from everyone. Even me.” He sat on the floor to watch her rock his son. “Sometimes I can bring her out of it but she just… keeps on moving. Like if she stops, the world will crumble.” He took a deep breath. “I feel her, sometimes. You know. She lets her guard down and I feel her and I know she still loves me. She loves Isaiah. She just… won’t show it.”
“Really, Gabriel. When did it start?”
He bit his lip and thought about it. “After we finally told everyone she was pregnant… she went for a walk, said she ran into Davey. She came back upset. Couple of days later… this started.”
“So, how do you know?”
“Liz, I haven’t been in your world very long but I know Beth… as much as she lets anyone know her.” He turned his head to the kitchen where Max was healing Beth’s ankle so she could pace in comfort. “She’s scared. I mean, she sprained her ankle two days ago and she won’t heal it. She’s stopped using her powers… she’s stopped picking him up again. For a while there, she wouldn’t let me touch her…”
“When did that stop?”
“Tonight,” He shrugged again. “It’s been a couple of months.” He shrugged again. “Can we pretend that we didn’t just talk about my sex life with your daughter?”
“Would it make it better if I shared with you?”
He grinned. “I think I remember what your sex life was like when you were younger.”
“Let’s keeping pretending you never saw what I hope you never saw.” Liz turned her eyes to the baby in her arms. Four months old and a handsome baby boy. “His eyes still haven’t chosen a color?”
“Don’t think they will. Between mine and Beth’s… and you mix ‘em so he’s got mud for eyes.” He joked. “What’s going to happen, Liz?”
“I don’t know. Science is my job, not aliens.” She shook her head. “No, aliens are my life and I haven’t proofed the math yet.”
Max ran David through his dream again. “So, the engines died when?”
“I don’t know… few months back. The ship isn’t moving anymore. There are no planets in shuttle range and they only have two.” David picked up the pen in front of him and doodled some more. “The air is turning sour. There’s something wrong with the life support. The food is still okay.”
“The power source?”
“For the engines is completely depleted. The drift between the stars was too great. They waited too long to launch and… they suffered a saboteur not long after they left the home system. I don’t know what they had targeted. Maybe they were thrown off course.”
Beth took the drawings from her baby brother. “The gravity core will go next, then people who are sick from the air are going to get sicker. Then parts of the ship are going to shut down, one by one, killing whoever is inside and even if they get to another part of the ship, the overcrowding will use up all the air.”
“You got all that from that?” Max pointed to the doodles.
“Yep.”
“So, can we help them?”
“No.” Beth cleared her throat. “I can.”
“How?” Max stared at her and she stared him dead in the eyes. “Beth, how?”
TBC
The Fate of Destiny Part 181
2042 – Part A
Beth endured the kiss on her head before her father walked away to the next patient. She limped over to the admit desk to begin charting her rounds. She plugged her portable player into the speaker at her desk and started typing. Gabriel had been up with Isaiah all night and it was her turn tonight. She’d need to nap as soon as she got in so that she’d be ready for the 3 am walking. She ignored the older nurses bickering behind her. The director position had opened up and as much as she’d like to put in for it, her life could not handle such a structured job. The old director had always been on her about calling off. Gabriel’s job with the paper was much more manageable as he could work from home if he had to. She was ready for Isaiah to sleep through the night.
--
Kat rolled her eyes and prayed her mother would give up soon. “I just don’t think kids are in the picture for me. It’s not fair to a child given my schedule.”
“You could try it.” Liz pressed.
“Mom. I can’t just give a kid back.”
“But you can change your job.”
“No, I can’t. This is exactly what I want to be doing and I will not change that.” Kat took a breath and let it out slowly. “Mom, it’s not that kids aren’t great but… I just don’t feel that urge.”
“Sweetie…”
“Dan and Beth have kids. I don’t need to have kids… Hell, I’ll bet Davey has a kid or two out there that he doesn’t even know about.”
“Oh, Kat, don’t even give me that thought.” Liz sighed heavily. “It will be an option for you far longer than it is for any other woman.”
“I know.”
--
David pulled his shirt on and left his phone number next to the bed before ambling to his own dorm room. Flopping on his bed, he focused on the dreamcatcher. All he really wanted was some sleep.
--
Alex lifted an eyebrow at his sister when she snuck into the house with a new bandage on her arm. “What did you get this time?”
“Jesus, you scared me.” She threw her keys at him.
“Good. I’ve been terrified all night.” He set down his coffee and looked her over. Their mother would have had a fit if she were alive.
“I’m 20, you know.”
“Yes, I am aware, Gina. I’m painfully aware.”
“The kids asleep?” She picked her keys up off the ground and set about taking off her shoes.
“Why yes, the kids are asleep. You said you’d be home by midnight.”
“I said I’d be home late.” She pointed out. “Again… I’m 20.”
Alex set his coffee down on the table and ran his hands over his face. “We had an agreement, Gina. I’m paying for your school, your clothes, your car. You don’t pay rent, food, anything.”
“I’m following the rules. You never said I had a curfew.” She protested.
“I did say you had to keep your grades up.” He picked up the report card that had come in the mail. “Academic suspension. Why?”
--
Berty pulled off her huge earrings and tossed them on the desk. “Why do I always have to be the hooker?”
“But you do it so well.” Her partner grinned at her. “Besides, my ass is too big for the skirt.
“But your boobs are bigger.” She grinned back. He scowled and nodded to the other room. “What?”
“The big red phone.”
“What?”
“Jesus, you really are a fetus.” He turned fully to her. “The big red phone was a direct line in the…” Saw her eyes glaze over. “Forget it. Be ignorant. They want you for your other unit, whatever unit that is.”
“Finally.” She tossed her heels at him and pointed to the earrings. “Don’t forget to log those in for evidence this time.”
--
Liz checked all the windows and doors. Her big empty house. Kids all gone. Parents all gone. Shelves of scrapbooks in her den. She glanced at the deed to Diane’s house but Max had not decided what he wanted to do with it. Sell it, rent it… Liz knew he really wanted to give it to Beth and Gabriel but also knew that Beth wouldn’t take it. She’d asked him about Kyle but he moved around so much with his unit that it didn’t make sense, he’d said. Kat wouldn’t come home. Dan wouldn’t come home. Davey WOULD NOT COME HOME. David, she mentally corrected herself. He was taking his time with a degree in psychology and threatened to switch to psychiatry.
She curled up in her chair in the living room. The nursery was empty save for some extra clothes that Beth had left behind a few weeks ago when Isaiah had stayed the week. Maybe a toy or two that Dan and Em’s kids had left the last time they had visited. Maybe Christmas.
When Max got home, she was flipping through the photo album at the kitchen table with a glass of wine. He tsked her. “Your meds.”
“I know. Just felt like wallowing.” She turned her face up for a kiss.
“Have you gotten any new letter from Kyle?”
“Yes.” She held it up where she was about to tuck it into the rest that Max hadn’t read himself. “He says he’s test piloting a plane that’s going up another level, whatever that means. Most of it was blacked out.”
“Then how’d you get that much?” Max stroked her gray hair out of her face.
“Off the paper. He touched that himself.”
“So how high is this plane going?”
“Sub-orbit?”
“They are getting closer aren’t they.”
“They are.” She looked up at him. “Beth?”
“Tired and limping. She sprained her ankle on a baby toy.” Max grinned at her small smile. “You’ll see the baby on Sunday. She promised.”
“Is she going after the director position?”
“No. She’s refusing. Says it’s not fair to the others if she takes it and then cuts out on them.”
“She’s so afraid of permanence.” Liz groaned.
“Is that psych-talk?”
“Yes, but it’s true.”
“She’s got to live her own life and make her own decisions.”
“Did I fight this much with my mom?”
“For a very long time.”
--
Beth let her husband settle his weight on top of her, he was close, she could feel it. She couldn’t focus, certain that any moment their little devil would wake up. Then his thoughts began to bombard her tired brain, she let go and felt every blessed thing. His words in her ears. “You with me, sweetie? Sweetie, are you with me?”
If I had the ways to show you, we could fly away like a satellite, floating out in space. If I had the means to reach you, I could celebrate with a carnival dancing on parade. Dancing on parade.
I wanna get closer to you. I wanna walk around inside your shoes. I wanna get closer, closer than you’ve ever seen. I wanna be inside you . Closer to you. I wanna be the blood inside your veins. I wanna get closer, closer than you’ve ever seen. I wanna get inside you.
Seems you hide behind the makeup, turn it all around, like a circus clown laughing at the crowd. Seems to me that when I call you a thousand times a day. You just snatch up the phone, throw my dreams away. Throw my dreams away.
I wanna get closer to you. I wanna walk around inside your shoes. I wanna get closer, closer than you’ve ever seen. I wanna be inside you . Closer to you. I wanna be the blood inside your veins. I wanna get closer, closer than you’ve ever seen. I wanna get inside you.
I wanna get closer to you. I wanna walk around inside your shoes. I wanna get closer, closer than you’ve ever seen. I wanna be inside you . Closer to you. I wanna be the blood inside your veins. I wanna get closer, closer than you’ve ever seen. I wanna get inside you.
Beth didn’t move for a long time. Listened to Gabriel soothe Isaiah when he woke up, even though it was her turn. She finally got up and cleaned up so she could join her men in the living room of their small apartment. She curled up next to them on the couch. Gabriel reached down and pulled her leg up so he could examine the swelling on her ankle. “Why won’t you heal that?”
“Never had a sprained ankle before.” She whispered into his shoulder as she stroked their son’s foot.
“Did you eat today?”
“Yes.”
“Liar.”
“I so did.” She kissed his lips. “Ask my dad. He paid for it.”
“So spoiled.” He shifted the dozing baby in his arms. “What’s on your mind?”’
“Dunno. All kinds of spacey today.”
--
Davey leapt to his feet, still half-asleep, and searched for his shoes. He didn’t know if he’d found them before he was running through campus, off campus and into the streets of Roswell. It took him nearly 20 minutes of hard sprinting but he ended up on his block and found his father in the backyard sneaking a cigarette. “Dad!”
“David? What’s wrong?”
“Something’s wrong with the ship. I don’t know what’s going on but something is massively wrong.”
--
Lauren watched the monitors with the rest of the team. They had found the object some years before, moving on its own momentum. It had slowed when it had reached the outer solar system but had been moving on a trajectory. Now, it appeared to be… drifting. Berty walked in a moment later and stared. “Is it dead in the water?”
“Too far away to tell.” A scientist spoke up. “From our scopes, it’s not moving forward or backward. It is still possible that while the engines are off, that the life support is on.”
“Is it in trouble?” Lauren turned to the team.
“Quite possibly. It’s obviously a very advanced craft, however… in any voyage, a number of things could go wrong. If propulsion is down, it’s not getting any nearer to Earth. If it still has life support, the inhabitants are safe but only for as long as life support sustains their numbers.” He looked to the others. “Anyone else?”
“Do we have a guess at the numbers?”
“It’s a one-way trip, every time.” Berty cleared her throat. “Every time. This time, it’s a life boat sent with limited resources. Even with their advances in technology since the last ship they sent.”
“When was that?”
“1960s.” Lauren answered. “Any adult who left their planet, would be very aged by now.”
“Wouldn’t they have stasis?”
“What about a powersource?”
“What are the numbers?”
Berty sat to exchange a glance with Lauren, who was sitting with her arms crossed. They shrugged at each other while the scientists kept asking questions that didn’t have answers.
--
Liz paced the floor with Isaiah. Gabriel stood with his hands on his head. Beth, David and Max spoke in a flurry of words. Liz retreated to the nursery to rock the baby to sleep while they made a plan. Gabriel joined her a few minutes later. “It’s go-time, huh.”
“Seems that way.” Liz nodded and watched his face. “Is she getting better?” He shrugged. “My mom had post-partum with me. It’s partly why they never had more kids. She was afraid to go through it again.”
“It’s more than that.”
“I know.”
“It’s more than post-partum, Liz. She’s distancing herself from everyone. Even me.” He sat on the floor to watch her rock his son. “Sometimes I can bring her out of it but she just… keeps on moving. Like if she stops, the world will crumble.” He took a deep breath. “I feel her, sometimes. You know. She lets her guard down and I feel her and I know she still loves me. She loves Isaiah. She just… won’t show it.”
“Really, Gabriel. When did it start?”
He bit his lip and thought about it. “After we finally told everyone she was pregnant… she went for a walk, said she ran into Davey. She came back upset. Couple of days later… this started.”
“So, how do you know?”
“Liz, I haven’t been in your world very long but I know Beth… as much as she lets anyone know her.” He turned his head to the kitchen where Max was healing Beth’s ankle so she could pace in comfort. “She’s scared. I mean, she sprained her ankle two days ago and she won’t heal it. She’s stopped using her powers… she’s stopped picking him up again. For a while there, she wouldn’t let me touch her…”
“When did that stop?”
“Tonight,” He shrugged again. “It’s been a couple of months.” He shrugged again. “Can we pretend that we didn’t just talk about my sex life with your daughter?”
“Would it make it better if I shared with you?”
He grinned. “I think I remember what your sex life was like when you were younger.”
“Let’s keeping pretending you never saw what I hope you never saw.” Liz turned her eyes to the baby in her arms. Four months old and a handsome baby boy. “His eyes still haven’t chosen a color?”
“Don’t think they will. Between mine and Beth’s… and you mix ‘em so he’s got mud for eyes.” He joked. “What’s going to happen, Liz?”
“I don’t know. Science is my job, not aliens.” She shook her head. “No, aliens are my life and I haven’t proofed the math yet.”
Max ran David through his dream again. “So, the engines died when?”
“I don’t know… few months back. The ship isn’t moving anymore. There are no planets in shuttle range and they only have two.” David picked up the pen in front of him and doodled some more. “The air is turning sour. There’s something wrong with the life support. The food is still okay.”
“The power source?”
“For the engines is completely depleted. The drift between the stars was too great. They waited too long to launch and… they suffered a saboteur not long after they left the home system. I don’t know what they had targeted. Maybe they were thrown off course.”
Beth took the drawings from her baby brother. “The gravity core will go next, then people who are sick from the air are going to get sicker. Then parts of the ship are going to shut down, one by one, killing whoever is inside and even if they get to another part of the ship, the overcrowding will use up all the air.”
“You got all that from that?” Max pointed to the doodles.
“Yep.”
“So, can we help them?”
“No.” Beth cleared her throat. “I can.”
“How?” Max stared at her and she stared him dead in the eyes. “Beth, how?”
TBC
Re: The Fate of Destiny Part 181B CC/UC ADULT 08/30/10
The Fate of Destiny Part 181
Part B
Beth stared up at the glowing cone. She could feel its excitement. It hadn’t called her the way it had before. It had her trained to know when to come. The summit would have gone better if she had been this close to it. Then again, she might have done more damage. She didn’t have the maturity or the control she did now. She didn’t have as much to live for. Now… Gabriel had taken Isaiah home. He couldn’t be here. He was a distraction.
The pit in her stomach grew. There was no going back from this. There was no more keeping secrets from the world. The energy it would take to restart the engines would be visible, would be nearly destructive if she didn’t do it just right. And it would take time. Light took time to travel but it could be accelerated if it was just light. She was transferring energy as well. No one had asked and she hadn’t volunteered the information about exactly how dangerous it was; she could die doing this.
--
Gabriel watched the news while he paced. Word had “leaked” out. The “object” was of “unknown origin” and likely a suicide mission from another solar system. It had to be. It wasn’t moving. Earth’s best detection could not determine if there was life aboard the “object” or not. Any attempt by the World Astronomical Association could take decades to reach the “object.”
The WAA didn’t have his wife in hand. That’s when his phone started ringing. Time to talk to the in-laws.
--
Berty cleared her throat when she hung up the phone. Will had given her the go ahead. Kat had already talked to Liz. She straightened her suit jacket and marched up to the director. “I need to speak with the president.”
The director almost shooed her away but the president stood up from her seat behind the podium where she’d been hidden all along. “Your name?”
“Special Agent Liberty Valenti.” Berty held out her hand. “I have pertinent information regarding the object.”
“Well, let’s have it.” President Maleda gestured to the group of officials around them.
“The object is a ship.”
“We know that Agent Valenti.” Maleda took her seat once more.
“The ship is in distress.” Berty bit back a sarcastic retort. “The Special Unit has Intel that suggests all efforts by Earth will result in the death of a million citizens aboard the ship.”
“A million?” Maleda looked to her advisors who were taking notes and making vain attempts not to touch their phones to relay the information.
“Thereabouts. The ship was headed to Earth.”
“How do you know that?”
“The Intel, ma’am.” Berty went on. “A saboteur on the ship drained the power source shortly after they left the home system. They barely made it this far. They have food, they have pressure. They do not have air for much longer and they cannot make it to any nearby moon or planet.”
“Who are they? Why are you relaying this information if all we can do is sit and watch a million of these citizens die?”
“Before my lifetime, you had a hope of keeping this a secret. Now, amateurs have the technology to see our furthest planets from their homes in real time. The object was on YouTube last week and the news has only just picked it up now because there’s chatter at the WAA about it not moving anymore. Most people assumed it was a ship.” She took a breath and let it out slowly. “There will be an attempt to get the engines started again. It will cause a scene. It will be visible for several hours, possibly days and we need to keep the people calm and away from the scene.”
“Who is making this attempt?”
--
Dan ended his shift and joined his wife for breakfast at their favorite diner. The kids ate and ran off to play video games. Em kept her eye on the TV behind the counter. “How long until it goes down?”
“I don’t know. Davey sent me a message but I think they don’t get reception in the chamber.” Dan winked at Gracie when she glanced back at them. “I just don’t know what the reaction will be. I don’t know if we should start heading home ahead of the mob.”
“Dad hasn’t said anything.”
--
Michael stared at the screen, kept his hands on his phone. Oriel and Laurie waited for him to say something, anything. “Max said it would be dangerous if we went out there.”
“Dangerous how, Michael?” Oriel huffed.
“Could be an explosion… Could be government… Could be reporters.”
“Don’t go.” Laurie pleaded, rushing to his side.
“Chuck and Donna?” Oriel shut her eyes.
“Don’t have to be involved in this.” Michael shook his head.
“And the boys?” Oriel looked to the stairwell where her boys were still sleeping the morning away.
“Max was right… we should just lay low and let her do what she’s going to do. The fewer of us exposed, the better.”
--
Davey helped his dad to move the Granilith out of the chamber. Beth just stood and watched. So not fair. She wanted a clearing and to get the cars out of the way. Mom was handling that. Beth was leaning against the rocks, watching. He rolled his eyes but focused on getting the molecules to budge the way he wanted them to. When he was done, he stood over her. “I’m wrong sometimes, you know.”
“You said I would die and my child would die with me.” Beth glared at him. “Should I have done this sooner?”
“I’m wrong sometimes.” He repeated. “Maybe it was just a nightmare.”
“Your nightmares haven’t been nightmares since you were a kid. They always mean something.”
“Whatever. When do we do this?”
“We have to wait for the right rotation.”
“How do you know that?”
“I just do.” She shrugged and sat back. She was beginning to think the pit in her stomach was more than a mind game she’d played on herself.
--
Kyle listened to the gossip as he worked out. Surely someone would have called him. He focused on doing reps and tried to ignore the machismo flying around the room. These guys had seen way too many patriotic-alien-killing movies. He wondered if he would get pardoned for going AWOL once he was outed as a little green man.
“Valenti!” Damn. “What’s your take? My money’s on three eyes, Dumas says three fingers.”
“Why do they have to look like aliens?” Kyle got up and wiped the sweat from his face. “What if they look just like us?”
“Dude, if they looked just like us, they wouldn’t be aliens. Dumb ass.”
--
Gabriel opened the door and stepped aside. Donna Jo stormed in with her kids trailing after her. She immediately picked up Isaiah and began making a bottle. “Chuck said it’s no big deal but I know it’s a big deal. She’s not here… so where is she?”
“Good morning, Donna Jo Allen. How are you this fine morning?” Gabriel steered her tiny tots to the cereal in the kitchenette.
“Good morning or whatever.” She put her hands in the air. “Gabe, where is she?”
“Doing the alien thing.” He shrugged and crossed his arms. “I’m supposed to be outside the blast zone… just in case.”
“Just in case what?”
“Just in case Isaiah needs a parent.”
“You’re not funny.”
“I am aware of this.”
“I think I liked you better when you didn’t talk.”
“I think I liked you better when you didn’t dress like a suburban mom.”
“Shut up. Where is she?”
“In the desert.”
Donna Jo didn’t speak for a long while. She fed Isaiah and paced. “Is she coming back?”
“I don’t know.”
“How can you be so calm about this?”
“How should I be? I’ve got a kid to look after. I’ve been doing this alone for months, Donna Jo. I can’t fall apart when she’s like this.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Cause there’s no one to put me back together. I hold her up.”
“Did you ever stop to think that you were never holding her up?” She rolled her eyes when he gave her a blank look. “She doesn’t trust anyone.”
“Yeah, that’s a newsflash.”
“You know what I mean.” She sighed and sank into a chair. “I thought she was getting better.”
“I think she knew this was coming.”
“Really?”
“It would explain a lot.”
--
Gina tried but it did not come. She’d heard the stories but most of them had stopped after her parents were killed. Looking at the ship on the news didn’t help. She would be the freak in the freakshow who had no freakiness. She wasn’t supersmart. Scanning did not come easily. She didn’t even really look like either of her parents. People always thought she was Alex’s girlfriend or mistress. Ew. Ew squared. No one ever believed they were related much less brother and sister. It helped that she looked related to Lynnette and explaining that relation always got a weird look or two.
Alex leaned on her chair to watch over her shoulder. “Anything?”
“Not yet.”
“Why do you think now and not some weeks, months, years ago?”
“Alignment was wrong.” She blinked and looked back at him. “Don’t know how I know that.”
“Cause you’re a freak.” He tapped her nose. “Back to the books.”
“It’s not his fault, you know.” Gina picked up her notebook from the table in front of her. “I’m the instigator.”
“I know how much trouble you are. I still don’t like him.”
“You suck.”
“You really going to walk right into that one?” He made a face at her. “I thought you were smarter than that.”
Gina threw her stylus at him. “Go to work!”
--
Berty drew a line around the map. “That’s the perimeter we need to guard.”
“How do you know that whatever’s going on inside your perimeter is already going on?”
“I’ve got the inside track.” She checked her purse for her gun and her passport. “Send the agents. Get the roadblocks up.”
“Madam President. We have five hours until the center of that perimeter crosses into a trajectory that will allow access to the ship.” A scientist confirmed.
--
“My windows are small but I’ll need the time in between to recharge. Every time I try it, it will take a lot out of me.” Beth explained. “Once we’re done, we may not know for several days if it worked or not.”
“What do you need from us?” Max didn’t like how calm she was. He didn’t like how easy it was to talk Gabriel into leaving. She looked pale and he didn’t like that either.
“Just to stay out of the way and to keep anything from getting in the way.” She shifted in the passenger seat of her dad’s car. The pit in her stomach was growing and becoming physically annoying.
“Like what? Berty’s getting us a perimeter.”
“She means like birds. That’s my job.” David shrugged. “I can keep them out of the way but I can’t guarantee they’ll live.”
“Better to crash and burn than get shot into space.” She grimaced against what was becoming a very familiar feeling in her belly.
“How is this going to work, sweetie?”
She shrugged and tried to get her screaming muscles to relax. “It just will.”
“You okay?” He laid a hand on her forehead.
“Just getting ready,” she lied.
“You’re warm.”
“I’m sitting in a car in the middle of the desert.”
David frowned at her. “You do look uglier than normal.”
“Shut up.” She made a face at her little brother.
“Beth.” Liz cut in. “I’m really uncomfortable with all of this. Can’t you just… tell us what’s going to happen?”
“It’s hard to put into words.”
“Try.”
“Mom, I’m not 12.”
“Then explain.”
“I don’t really understand it enough to explain it. I just know it will… probably work.”
“Why are you sweating?” Liz kept going.
“Gabe cooked last night. I think I got food poisoning.”
--
Kat stepped off the plane and turned her face to see the helicopters heading out to where she figured her family had gathered. Will and a few of his agents followed her to the cars waiting at the edge of the lot. Will hefted her case containing a number of serums she had concocted that could be of use depending on how badly this thing went. She had no clue what was actually going to happen but with her family, nothing good was going to happen to them.
Will set the case in the back of the car and held the door open for his wife. Kat sighed and got in, sliding over for him to join her. Agent Ledford climbed into the driver seat and sent them on their way. She hadn’t seen the inside but she had been there before. Will had called in a no-fly zone. His agents were going out to supervise the perimeter that would be blocking the highways and back roads.
--
Kyle reported to his superior officer. The whispers were many but the content was nil. What was he supposed to do? Keep his cover at all costs? Just go about his job until the next opportunity to slip out? What did one do as a runaway alien from the airforce?
--
Gabriel couldn’t take it anymore. He grabbed the baby’s bag and settled the little guy in the carrier and grabbed the car keys. He almost turned back three times but he kept driving to the cave. He got stuck at the perimeter. It took two hours for him to get close enough to talk to anyone and then another hour to get someone to listen to him and maybe for Agent Goldblum to show up and escort them to the cave.
He passed Isaiah on to Kat before approaching the quartet standing in front of a large glowing cone. At first he thought it was the glow coloring his wife’s skin and then he got closer. She had just lifted her hand to do something when he began running to her because he knew what had happened the last time she looked like that. Max turned to squint at him in the darkness. “Beth!” he called out and she lurched forward, eyes wide, slamming her hand on the side of the cone. “Beth, stop!”
And then it was too late. She was inside it and it was too late. Gabriel touched the surface of the cone but he didn’t have that certain alien something to make it react to him. “Didn’t she hear me?”
“Gabriel? What’s wrong?” Max frowned.
“She can’t do this.” He punched the cone but it didn’t even budge. Didn’t dent, didn’t give him back his wife. “Beth! Come out!”
“Gabe… she’s already started.” Max pointed to the top of the cone that was beginning to emit light. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s pregnant.” He leaned his face on the cone. “She didn’t have a lot of control in the beginning of her pregnancy with Isaiah and she was just doing everyday things then.”
“How far along is she?” Max looked to his wife.
“She hasn’t said anything to me.” Liz shook her head.
“How far along?” Max pressed.
“Not long.” Gabriel shook his head. “The first few days is always hard on her.”
“Always?” Liz shook her head. “How many times has she been pregnant?”
The light grew brighter and then a pulse started from within the cone. Gabriel shut his eyes against the brightness. “This makes five.”
TBC
Part B
Beth stared up at the glowing cone. She could feel its excitement. It hadn’t called her the way it had before. It had her trained to know when to come. The summit would have gone better if she had been this close to it. Then again, she might have done more damage. She didn’t have the maturity or the control she did now. She didn’t have as much to live for. Now… Gabriel had taken Isaiah home. He couldn’t be here. He was a distraction.
The pit in her stomach grew. There was no going back from this. There was no more keeping secrets from the world. The energy it would take to restart the engines would be visible, would be nearly destructive if she didn’t do it just right. And it would take time. Light took time to travel but it could be accelerated if it was just light. She was transferring energy as well. No one had asked and she hadn’t volunteered the information about exactly how dangerous it was; she could die doing this.
--
Gabriel watched the news while he paced. Word had “leaked” out. The “object” was of “unknown origin” and likely a suicide mission from another solar system. It had to be. It wasn’t moving. Earth’s best detection could not determine if there was life aboard the “object” or not. Any attempt by the World Astronomical Association could take decades to reach the “object.”
The WAA didn’t have his wife in hand. That’s when his phone started ringing. Time to talk to the in-laws.
--
Berty cleared her throat when she hung up the phone. Will had given her the go ahead. Kat had already talked to Liz. She straightened her suit jacket and marched up to the director. “I need to speak with the president.”
The director almost shooed her away but the president stood up from her seat behind the podium where she’d been hidden all along. “Your name?”
“Special Agent Liberty Valenti.” Berty held out her hand. “I have pertinent information regarding the object.”
“Well, let’s have it.” President Maleda gestured to the group of officials around them.
“The object is a ship.”
“We know that Agent Valenti.” Maleda took her seat once more.
“The ship is in distress.” Berty bit back a sarcastic retort. “The Special Unit has Intel that suggests all efforts by Earth will result in the death of a million citizens aboard the ship.”
“A million?” Maleda looked to her advisors who were taking notes and making vain attempts not to touch their phones to relay the information.
“Thereabouts. The ship was headed to Earth.”
“How do you know that?”
“The Intel, ma’am.” Berty went on. “A saboteur on the ship drained the power source shortly after they left the home system. They barely made it this far. They have food, they have pressure. They do not have air for much longer and they cannot make it to any nearby moon or planet.”
“Who are they? Why are you relaying this information if all we can do is sit and watch a million of these citizens die?”
“Before my lifetime, you had a hope of keeping this a secret. Now, amateurs have the technology to see our furthest planets from their homes in real time. The object was on YouTube last week and the news has only just picked it up now because there’s chatter at the WAA about it not moving anymore. Most people assumed it was a ship.” She took a breath and let it out slowly. “There will be an attempt to get the engines started again. It will cause a scene. It will be visible for several hours, possibly days and we need to keep the people calm and away from the scene.”
“Who is making this attempt?”
--
Dan ended his shift and joined his wife for breakfast at their favorite diner. The kids ate and ran off to play video games. Em kept her eye on the TV behind the counter. “How long until it goes down?”
“I don’t know. Davey sent me a message but I think they don’t get reception in the chamber.” Dan winked at Gracie when she glanced back at them. “I just don’t know what the reaction will be. I don’t know if we should start heading home ahead of the mob.”
“Dad hasn’t said anything.”
--
Michael stared at the screen, kept his hands on his phone. Oriel and Laurie waited for him to say something, anything. “Max said it would be dangerous if we went out there.”
“Dangerous how, Michael?” Oriel huffed.
“Could be an explosion… Could be government… Could be reporters.”
“Don’t go.” Laurie pleaded, rushing to his side.
“Chuck and Donna?” Oriel shut her eyes.
“Don’t have to be involved in this.” Michael shook his head.
“And the boys?” Oriel looked to the stairwell where her boys were still sleeping the morning away.
“Max was right… we should just lay low and let her do what she’s going to do. The fewer of us exposed, the better.”
--
Davey helped his dad to move the Granilith out of the chamber. Beth just stood and watched. So not fair. She wanted a clearing and to get the cars out of the way. Mom was handling that. Beth was leaning against the rocks, watching. He rolled his eyes but focused on getting the molecules to budge the way he wanted them to. When he was done, he stood over her. “I’m wrong sometimes, you know.”
“You said I would die and my child would die with me.” Beth glared at him. “Should I have done this sooner?”
“I’m wrong sometimes.” He repeated. “Maybe it was just a nightmare.”
“Your nightmares haven’t been nightmares since you were a kid. They always mean something.”
“Whatever. When do we do this?”
“We have to wait for the right rotation.”
“How do you know that?”
“I just do.” She shrugged and sat back. She was beginning to think the pit in her stomach was more than a mind game she’d played on herself.
--
Kyle listened to the gossip as he worked out. Surely someone would have called him. He focused on doing reps and tried to ignore the machismo flying around the room. These guys had seen way too many patriotic-alien-killing movies. He wondered if he would get pardoned for going AWOL once he was outed as a little green man.
“Valenti!” Damn. “What’s your take? My money’s on three eyes, Dumas says three fingers.”
“Why do they have to look like aliens?” Kyle got up and wiped the sweat from his face. “What if they look just like us?”
“Dude, if they looked just like us, they wouldn’t be aliens. Dumb ass.”
--
Gabriel opened the door and stepped aside. Donna Jo stormed in with her kids trailing after her. She immediately picked up Isaiah and began making a bottle. “Chuck said it’s no big deal but I know it’s a big deal. She’s not here… so where is she?”
“Good morning, Donna Jo Allen. How are you this fine morning?” Gabriel steered her tiny tots to the cereal in the kitchenette.
“Good morning or whatever.” She put her hands in the air. “Gabe, where is she?”
“Doing the alien thing.” He shrugged and crossed his arms. “I’m supposed to be outside the blast zone… just in case.”
“Just in case what?”
“Just in case Isaiah needs a parent.”
“You’re not funny.”
“I am aware of this.”
“I think I liked you better when you didn’t talk.”
“I think I liked you better when you didn’t dress like a suburban mom.”
“Shut up. Where is she?”
“In the desert.”
Donna Jo didn’t speak for a long while. She fed Isaiah and paced. “Is she coming back?”
“I don’t know.”
“How can you be so calm about this?”
“How should I be? I’ve got a kid to look after. I’ve been doing this alone for months, Donna Jo. I can’t fall apart when she’s like this.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Cause there’s no one to put me back together. I hold her up.”
“Did you ever stop to think that you were never holding her up?” She rolled her eyes when he gave her a blank look. “She doesn’t trust anyone.”
“Yeah, that’s a newsflash.”
“You know what I mean.” She sighed and sank into a chair. “I thought she was getting better.”
“I think she knew this was coming.”
“Really?”
“It would explain a lot.”
--
Gina tried but it did not come. She’d heard the stories but most of them had stopped after her parents were killed. Looking at the ship on the news didn’t help. She would be the freak in the freakshow who had no freakiness. She wasn’t supersmart. Scanning did not come easily. She didn’t even really look like either of her parents. People always thought she was Alex’s girlfriend or mistress. Ew. Ew squared. No one ever believed they were related much less brother and sister. It helped that she looked related to Lynnette and explaining that relation always got a weird look or two.
Alex leaned on her chair to watch over her shoulder. “Anything?”
“Not yet.”
“Why do you think now and not some weeks, months, years ago?”
“Alignment was wrong.” She blinked and looked back at him. “Don’t know how I know that.”
“Cause you’re a freak.” He tapped her nose. “Back to the books.”
“It’s not his fault, you know.” Gina picked up her notebook from the table in front of her. “I’m the instigator.”
“I know how much trouble you are. I still don’t like him.”
“You suck.”
“You really going to walk right into that one?” He made a face at her. “I thought you were smarter than that.”
Gina threw her stylus at him. “Go to work!”
--
Berty drew a line around the map. “That’s the perimeter we need to guard.”
“How do you know that whatever’s going on inside your perimeter is already going on?”
“I’ve got the inside track.” She checked her purse for her gun and her passport. “Send the agents. Get the roadblocks up.”
“Madam President. We have five hours until the center of that perimeter crosses into a trajectory that will allow access to the ship.” A scientist confirmed.
--
“My windows are small but I’ll need the time in between to recharge. Every time I try it, it will take a lot out of me.” Beth explained. “Once we’re done, we may not know for several days if it worked or not.”
“What do you need from us?” Max didn’t like how calm she was. He didn’t like how easy it was to talk Gabriel into leaving. She looked pale and he didn’t like that either.
“Just to stay out of the way and to keep anything from getting in the way.” She shifted in the passenger seat of her dad’s car. The pit in her stomach was growing and becoming physically annoying.
“Like what? Berty’s getting us a perimeter.”
“She means like birds. That’s my job.” David shrugged. “I can keep them out of the way but I can’t guarantee they’ll live.”
“Better to crash and burn than get shot into space.” She grimaced against what was becoming a very familiar feeling in her belly.
“How is this going to work, sweetie?”
She shrugged and tried to get her screaming muscles to relax. “It just will.”
“You okay?” He laid a hand on her forehead.
“Just getting ready,” she lied.
“You’re warm.”
“I’m sitting in a car in the middle of the desert.”
David frowned at her. “You do look uglier than normal.”
“Shut up.” She made a face at her little brother.
“Beth.” Liz cut in. “I’m really uncomfortable with all of this. Can’t you just… tell us what’s going to happen?”
“It’s hard to put into words.”
“Try.”
“Mom, I’m not 12.”
“Then explain.”
“I don’t really understand it enough to explain it. I just know it will… probably work.”
“Why are you sweating?” Liz kept going.
“Gabe cooked last night. I think I got food poisoning.”
--
Kat stepped off the plane and turned her face to see the helicopters heading out to where she figured her family had gathered. Will and a few of his agents followed her to the cars waiting at the edge of the lot. Will hefted her case containing a number of serums she had concocted that could be of use depending on how badly this thing went. She had no clue what was actually going to happen but with her family, nothing good was going to happen to them.
Will set the case in the back of the car and held the door open for his wife. Kat sighed and got in, sliding over for him to join her. Agent Ledford climbed into the driver seat and sent them on their way. She hadn’t seen the inside but she had been there before. Will had called in a no-fly zone. His agents were going out to supervise the perimeter that would be blocking the highways and back roads.
--
Kyle reported to his superior officer. The whispers were many but the content was nil. What was he supposed to do? Keep his cover at all costs? Just go about his job until the next opportunity to slip out? What did one do as a runaway alien from the airforce?
--
Gabriel couldn’t take it anymore. He grabbed the baby’s bag and settled the little guy in the carrier and grabbed the car keys. He almost turned back three times but he kept driving to the cave. He got stuck at the perimeter. It took two hours for him to get close enough to talk to anyone and then another hour to get someone to listen to him and maybe for Agent Goldblum to show up and escort them to the cave.
He passed Isaiah on to Kat before approaching the quartet standing in front of a large glowing cone. At first he thought it was the glow coloring his wife’s skin and then he got closer. She had just lifted her hand to do something when he began running to her because he knew what had happened the last time she looked like that. Max turned to squint at him in the darkness. “Beth!” he called out and she lurched forward, eyes wide, slamming her hand on the side of the cone. “Beth, stop!”
And then it was too late. She was inside it and it was too late. Gabriel touched the surface of the cone but he didn’t have that certain alien something to make it react to him. “Didn’t she hear me?”
“Gabriel? What’s wrong?” Max frowned.
“She can’t do this.” He punched the cone but it didn’t even budge. Didn’t dent, didn’t give him back his wife. “Beth! Come out!”
“Gabe… she’s already started.” Max pointed to the top of the cone that was beginning to emit light. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s pregnant.” He leaned his face on the cone. “She didn’t have a lot of control in the beginning of her pregnancy with Isaiah and she was just doing everyday things then.”
“How far along is she?” Max looked to his wife.
“She hasn’t said anything to me.” Liz shook her head.
“How far along?” Max pressed.
“Not long.” Gabriel shook his head. “The first few days is always hard on her.”
“Always?” Liz shook her head. “How many times has she been pregnant?”
The light grew brighter and then a pulse started from within the cone. Gabriel shut his eyes against the brightness. “This makes five.”
TBC
Re: The Fate of Destiny Part 181B CC/UC ADULT 08/30/10
The Fate of Destiny Part 181
Part C
President Maleda watched from the base camp set up on the perimeter. “It’s just lights. Can’t we get closer?”
“I wouldn’t advise that madam.” Agent Ledford shook her head. “This is untried and if something went wrong, people could get hurt. There are only a handful of people in the immediate vicinity and they are all taking a risk.”
“Is this the big show?”
“As I understand it, it’s just warming up.” Agent Ledford tucked a graying strand of hair behind her ear.
“How long has this unit been a secret?”
“Since the 1940’s but… the mission statement changed in the early 2000s.”
“So, the unit has its own history.”
“We have some very promising young agents who will be taking over when our time is over.”
“Tell me the truth. The intel your unit comes across. How top secret is it?”
“Ma’am, even you don’t have clearance.”
--
The ground began to shake. Max cleared the area, backing their group several hundred yards. Then the Granolith began shooting balls of light into the sky, the ground shaking with every burst. It lasted for about an hour before it all went dark. Max could hardly see to stumble his way back to it. It had been so bright. When he got closer, he could see her on the ground. Gabriel beat him to her prone body and lifted her off the ground. “She’s cold but she’s breathing.”
When Gabriel had gotten her back to the car, Max took over. He ran his hands over her looking for anything that would tell him anything. “She’s okay. She’s pregnant but her aura’s weak.”
“Should we stop this?” Gabriel held onto his wife. “You weren’t so sure she should do this when you didn’t know she was pregnant.”
“It’s not going to be up to us.” Max made Gabriel look at him. “It may not be up to Beth either but It’s going to get what It wants.”
“Will It protect her?”
“I don’t know yet.”
--
Gina watched the television show her the path the “Energy Balls” had taken. They traveled fast but would take hours to reach the ships. She hoped they were ready. The first one would rock the ship and then there was almost no time between the next few. The public was clamoring for answers. The president was surprisingly quiet. Some said she was not even in the White House. Scientists theorized on live camera. That kind of pissed Gina off. If they really knew what they were talking about, they would be working on the dilemma in a lab somewhere, not posturing on television.
What were they going to say? They couldn’t just say nothing. The whole world knew it was a spaceship. The whole world knew something had just shot out of Earth and was heading for the spaceship.
--
Four agonizing hours later, Beth woke up. She was tired and thirsty and hungry. Her mother, ever ready, had actually packed food into the van before they headed out. Who did that? Gabriel was silent. Fussing but silent about it.
Isaiah. She held onto him and took some time to absorb his baby scents. She was changing his diaper when the freaking President held out her hand. “You’ll have to hang on a minute. Priorities.”
“Of course.” She watched for a minute, even took the dirty diaper to get it out of the car. SS took care of it from there. “I’m told you’re responsible for the light show.”
“In a manner of speaking.” Beth picked Isaiah up and held him in her lap as she scooted to the door.
“Walk with me, please.” President Maleda gestured to the path cleared by SS agents.
Beth shifted Isaiah onto her hip and took another Tabasco hot chocolate from her mother. She followed slowly. She really shouldn’t be moving. How do you say no to the president… even if you could snap her spine with a thought?
“Is this your first child?”
“Um… yeah.” Beth nodded. “He’s four months old.”
“He’s beautiful.” She stopped and stared up at the Granilith. “I have three. One in college and two waiting back at the White House for me to come home. Tell me, Mrs. Silerio, am I going home?”
“I don’t see why not. This could take a few days, though.”
“Let me rephrase that. Do we have anything to fear from these aliens on this ship?”
“Technically, yes. They are far more technologically advanced than we are. They could take Earth over in a matter of weeks upon arrival. We would be nearly powerless to stop them.”
“You said “nearly.”” Maleda cleared her throat. “What’s our secret weapon?”
“Me.” Beth started to walk away but Maleda scoffed. “Look. I don’t know what you know and don’t know. I don’t really have time for the alien talk and I’m really, really horrible at it. I just want to spend as much time with my son and my husband as I can. I don’t know what’s going to happen but I don’t want my last moments to be away from them.”
“This weapon you’re using, did they make it?”
Beth stared up at the Granilith for a long moment. “I don’t know who made it. It is far older than they are… It is one of the reasons they’re coming here. Their race has risen and risen and risen and now they are on the last rung. They are facing infertility and a lack of resources and energy sources. So they are coming here… because this… This thing here is what they believe in. The people that sent them… the ones who stayed behind… they won’t last much longer. I can’t help them at all. These people on this ship… they are an Ark. They think humans are beneath them but this thing here chose us over them. They know that. We’ll see what path they take when they get here.”
--
Alex opened his door to admit more of the “I know an Alien Club” as his late step-father had called it. The East Coast crew seemed to have made a bee-line for his place. Sebastien and Nat argued with Gina over who got control of the remote. His kids were screaming and running all over the place because of all the new faces. This kid, he barely remembered but Gina seemed to be sharing some classes with him. Stan? Sam? Something like that.
Lynnette’s phone kept ringing off the hook with various people trying to understand what was going on. Little Jimmy tugged on his dad’s arm. “Are aliens coming to eat us?”
“You are an alien, short-stack.” Gina snorted.
“We don’t eat people.” Alex reassured him, throwing a box of tissue at his baby sister.
Nat stared at the picture of the object. “I got all these half-brothers and –sisters… and I’m the only one who really understands what’s going on. I met a couple of them but they’re like Gina. Duds.”
“You’re awesome, cuz.” She shot the tissue box at him next.
“How long do you think it’ll take for them to get to Earth?” Sebastien mused allowed. “Are we gonna try and shoot them out of the sky? I mean… what is Earth going to do with aliens?”
--
Beth held still for the examination. “It’s fine, Dad.”
“It won’t be if you have to keep doing that.” Max frowned at her aura. “You’re weaker than you should be.”
“I’m managing.”
“If we were throwing fireballs, I might accept that but you’re climbing into a machine and… Beth… honestly, can you do this without hurting yourself?”
“Should I stop now and leave them to linger on in space and die because they can’t breathe? I have to try.” She stared at him and didn’t like the look he was giving her, “What?”
“Gabe told us about the other babies.”
“Dad…”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because it hurts to talk about, Dad. I can’t even talk about it with him and he’s the one I need to talk to about it.”
“Do you think that maybe I could have helped?”
“Dad. I’m the fucking Sleeper. Don’t you think that if it could have been helped that I might have done something about it?” Beth leapt to her feet, rage fueling her tired body to pace. “There are some things that Mother Nature has control of. My one ovary and crooked fallopian tube and scarred uterus being a few of those things.”
“How is the baby doing?”
“Dividing rapidly.”
--
Will escorted the president back to her base camp within the perimeter but away from the prying eyes of the public. He offered her coffee, snacks and a stack of files. “These are the condensed files. I’m having my assistant director bring up the read-only drives for further reading.”
“What is all this?” President Maleda pointed to the files. “How long has it been going on?”
“Long enough that you need to be well read before you make your statement to the world. Our countries enemies already think we’re hiding something. They think it’s a weapon of mass destruction. They think we’ve broken treaties to share scientific advancements. We have neither. What we have are… immigrants from a far off place who were born here by chance. They have lived among us without detection by the common citizen and caused no real harm. I’ll leave you to your reading.”
--
Liz sipped her third cup of coffee in the hour while she watched Beth sleep. Some unit had brought up cots and tents. A minibase was set up inside the perimeter. Fewer people here than were at the other base she was told. Gabriel had taken Isaiah for a walk around. Max was off taking to one agent or another. Beth was sleeping soundly. And sweating, a lot. How she could sleep, Liz had no idea. Liz was grateful when Gabriel returned. “Give me my grandson.”
“He’s cranky.” Gabriel warned.
“That’s okay.” She paced with the whimpering baby and watched Gabriel keep watch over his wife. “Have you talked to her about it?”
“I don’t think she wants to talk about it.”
“Have you tried?”
“I don’t think that I have much say in what’s been going on here.”
TBC
Part C
President Maleda watched from the base camp set up on the perimeter. “It’s just lights. Can’t we get closer?”
“I wouldn’t advise that madam.” Agent Ledford shook her head. “This is untried and if something went wrong, people could get hurt. There are only a handful of people in the immediate vicinity and they are all taking a risk.”
“Is this the big show?”
“As I understand it, it’s just warming up.” Agent Ledford tucked a graying strand of hair behind her ear.
“How long has this unit been a secret?”
“Since the 1940’s but… the mission statement changed in the early 2000s.”
“So, the unit has its own history.”
“We have some very promising young agents who will be taking over when our time is over.”
“Tell me the truth. The intel your unit comes across. How top secret is it?”
“Ma’am, even you don’t have clearance.”
--
The ground began to shake. Max cleared the area, backing their group several hundred yards. Then the Granolith began shooting balls of light into the sky, the ground shaking with every burst. It lasted for about an hour before it all went dark. Max could hardly see to stumble his way back to it. It had been so bright. When he got closer, he could see her on the ground. Gabriel beat him to her prone body and lifted her off the ground. “She’s cold but she’s breathing.”
When Gabriel had gotten her back to the car, Max took over. He ran his hands over her looking for anything that would tell him anything. “She’s okay. She’s pregnant but her aura’s weak.”
“Should we stop this?” Gabriel held onto his wife. “You weren’t so sure she should do this when you didn’t know she was pregnant.”
“It’s not going to be up to us.” Max made Gabriel look at him. “It may not be up to Beth either but It’s going to get what It wants.”
“Will It protect her?”
“I don’t know yet.”
--
Gina watched the television show her the path the “Energy Balls” had taken. They traveled fast but would take hours to reach the ships. She hoped they were ready. The first one would rock the ship and then there was almost no time between the next few. The public was clamoring for answers. The president was surprisingly quiet. Some said she was not even in the White House. Scientists theorized on live camera. That kind of pissed Gina off. If they really knew what they were talking about, they would be working on the dilemma in a lab somewhere, not posturing on television.
What were they going to say? They couldn’t just say nothing. The whole world knew it was a spaceship. The whole world knew something had just shot out of Earth and was heading for the spaceship.
--
Four agonizing hours later, Beth woke up. She was tired and thirsty and hungry. Her mother, ever ready, had actually packed food into the van before they headed out. Who did that? Gabriel was silent. Fussing but silent about it.
Isaiah. She held onto him and took some time to absorb his baby scents. She was changing his diaper when the freaking President held out her hand. “You’ll have to hang on a minute. Priorities.”
“Of course.” She watched for a minute, even took the dirty diaper to get it out of the car. SS took care of it from there. “I’m told you’re responsible for the light show.”
“In a manner of speaking.” Beth picked Isaiah up and held him in her lap as she scooted to the door.
“Walk with me, please.” President Maleda gestured to the path cleared by SS agents.
Beth shifted Isaiah onto her hip and took another Tabasco hot chocolate from her mother. She followed slowly. She really shouldn’t be moving. How do you say no to the president… even if you could snap her spine with a thought?
“Is this your first child?”
“Um… yeah.” Beth nodded. “He’s four months old.”
“He’s beautiful.” She stopped and stared up at the Granilith. “I have three. One in college and two waiting back at the White House for me to come home. Tell me, Mrs. Silerio, am I going home?”
“I don’t see why not. This could take a few days, though.”
“Let me rephrase that. Do we have anything to fear from these aliens on this ship?”
“Technically, yes. They are far more technologically advanced than we are. They could take Earth over in a matter of weeks upon arrival. We would be nearly powerless to stop them.”
“You said “nearly.”” Maleda cleared her throat. “What’s our secret weapon?”
“Me.” Beth started to walk away but Maleda scoffed. “Look. I don’t know what you know and don’t know. I don’t really have time for the alien talk and I’m really, really horrible at it. I just want to spend as much time with my son and my husband as I can. I don’t know what’s going to happen but I don’t want my last moments to be away from them.”
“This weapon you’re using, did they make it?”
Beth stared up at the Granilith for a long moment. “I don’t know who made it. It is far older than they are… It is one of the reasons they’re coming here. Their race has risen and risen and risen and now they are on the last rung. They are facing infertility and a lack of resources and energy sources. So they are coming here… because this… This thing here is what they believe in. The people that sent them… the ones who stayed behind… they won’t last much longer. I can’t help them at all. These people on this ship… they are an Ark. They think humans are beneath them but this thing here chose us over them. They know that. We’ll see what path they take when they get here.”
--
Alex opened his door to admit more of the “I know an Alien Club” as his late step-father had called it. The East Coast crew seemed to have made a bee-line for his place. Sebastien and Nat argued with Gina over who got control of the remote. His kids were screaming and running all over the place because of all the new faces. This kid, he barely remembered but Gina seemed to be sharing some classes with him. Stan? Sam? Something like that.
Lynnette’s phone kept ringing off the hook with various people trying to understand what was going on. Little Jimmy tugged on his dad’s arm. “Are aliens coming to eat us?”
“You are an alien, short-stack.” Gina snorted.
“We don’t eat people.” Alex reassured him, throwing a box of tissue at his baby sister.
Nat stared at the picture of the object. “I got all these half-brothers and –sisters… and I’m the only one who really understands what’s going on. I met a couple of them but they’re like Gina. Duds.”
“You’re awesome, cuz.” She shot the tissue box at him next.
“How long do you think it’ll take for them to get to Earth?” Sebastien mused allowed. “Are we gonna try and shoot them out of the sky? I mean… what is Earth going to do with aliens?”
--
Beth held still for the examination. “It’s fine, Dad.”
“It won’t be if you have to keep doing that.” Max frowned at her aura. “You’re weaker than you should be.”
“I’m managing.”
“If we were throwing fireballs, I might accept that but you’re climbing into a machine and… Beth… honestly, can you do this without hurting yourself?”
“Should I stop now and leave them to linger on in space and die because they can’t breathe? I have to try.” She stared at him and didn’t like the look he was giving her, “What?”
“Gabe told us about the other babies.”
“Dad…”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because it hurts to talk about, Dad. I can’t even talk about it with him and he’s the one I need to talk to about it.”
“Do you think that maybe I could have helped?”
“Dad. I’m the fucking Sleeper. Don’t you think that if it could have been helped that I might have done something about it?” Beth leapt to her feet, rage fueling her tired body to pace. “There are some things that Mother Nature has control of. My one ovary and crooked fallopian tube and scarred uterus being a few of those things.”
“How is the baby doing?”
“Dividing rapidly.”
--
Will escorted the president back to her base camp within the perimeter but away from the prying eyes of the public. He offered her coffee, snacks and a stack of files. “These are the condensed files. I’m having my assistant director bring up the read-only drives for further reading.”
“What is all this?” President Maleda pointed to the files. “How long has it been going on?”
“Long enough that you need to be well read before you make your statement to the world. Our countries enemies already think we’re hiding something. They think it’s a weapon of mass destruction. They think we’ve broken treaties to share scientific advancements. We have neither. What we have are… immigrants from a far off place who were born here by chance. They have lived among us without detection by the common citizen and caused no real harm. I’ll leave you to your reading.”
--
Liz sipped her third cup of coffee in the hour while she watched Beth sleep. Some unit had brought up cots and tents. A minibase was set up inside the perimeter. Fewer people here than were at the other base she was told. Gabriel had taken Isaiah for a walk around. Max was off taking to one agent or another. Beth was sleeping soundly. And sweating, a lot. How she could sleep, Liz had no idea. Liz was grateful when Gabriel returned. “Give me my grandson.”
“He’s cranky.” Gabriel warned.
“That’s okay.” She paced with the whimpering baby and watched Gabriel keep watch over his wife. “Have you talked to her about it?”
“I don’t think she wants to talk about it.”
“Have you tried?”
“I don’t think that I have much say in what’s been going on here.”
TBC
Re: The Fate of Destiny Part 181C CC/UC ADULT 08/31/10
Part D
Gina got out of the car long before the pile up started. Left Alex behind with his family and just started walking. Cars were left on the side of the road. Most people were watching the sky but a handful were just waiting. She asked one why and got an answer. “Only lasts a few hours every day. The rest of the time, nothing happens. I wait for when the ground shakes.”
She was stopped at the barrier until her older sister found her. Then she was whisked away to a tent where they were all waiting. No one in this camp was watching the sky. She sat and waited. Then the car arrived from the desert and a lot of people got out. She and Berty rode in silence to the site where more tents were set up. She hugged her aunt and uncle and played with her little cousin for a minute.
The second Beth got up, Gina was on her. “Are you crazy?”
“What?” About seven people turned to stare at her but Gina would not be deterred.
“Are you crazy? Do you realize how much energy it’s going to take to fix their ship?” Gina began pacing and ranting. “I’ve been doing the calculations and it doesn’t bode well for you. If you fix their ship, it will kill you. Even if things aren’t as bad up there as we think… what if it’s much worse? We don’t have eyes on the ship.”
“No, you’re right. We don’t.” Beth acknowledged. “I like the new tattoo.”
“I’m starting to regret it already.” Gina nodded to her. “So, are you going to stop?”
“I’m going in one more time.” Beth nodded to them all and marched out to the Granilith.
--
Max refused to leave her. He stood next to it. He didn’t dare touch it but he was going to be there if he was needed. His feet were numb from the vibrations in the ground. The night was hot as it was and the bright light emitting from the Granilith seemed to make it that much brighter.
Liz waited in the tent. She couldn’t watch. Gabriel paced somehow. The tent shook furiously. The baby rested in his aunt’s arms, the older woman creating a pocket around the baby to prevent any harm. Then it all just stopped. Hours too soon.
Max stared up at the ball of light hovering over the Granilith but it made no move for the stars. Then Beth fell out of the Granilith, unconscious but somehow different from the way it happened before. She was pale and so still he really didn’t think she was breathing. Before he could make a move for her, he noticed that the ball of light had started to sink. He didn’t know what it would do if it landed. He had to focus to push it outward. He laid his hand on the Granilith but it wouldn’t take him. The ball stopped sinking. Then he felt them around him. His youngest son, his nieces, his other daughter… their hands on the Granilith and the ball of light rising higher into the air, much slower than its predecessors under Beth’s guidance.
Gabriel stole away with Beth’s still body while the others were focused on not blowing up the planet. Liz paced with the baby and waited with closed eyes. Her legs folded beneath her when the pain in her belly erupted at the same time that Gabriel let loose a cry. She managed to get the baby safely to the ground before she doubled over in pain. Gabriel grabbed his head, it felt like it was splitting in two.
--
President Maleda’s confusion grew when three agents assigned to the special unit suddenly went down, screaming and grasping their chests or arms. “What’s going on out there?”
“Same report. They have people going down.” Then the agent with the radio stared at it. “The radios usually don’t work when they use that thing.”
“It’s not on.” Maleda watched on the monitors as the normal high velocity was a mere crawl in comparison. “What is happening out there?”
--
Michael stood in his yard. The light was high enough that he could see it. Oriel stood beside him. He reached for that long dead connection with his old best friend. It flared open and then he was stuck in a trance. When Oriel touched his arm, her mind was blown wide open.
--
Danny saw it and knew something was wrong. He wanted to help but he was so far away. Emily was the one who started it. Reaching for it with her mind, fixating on it and when he touched her shoulder, he was pulled into it.
--
Alex shut his eyes and visualized it the way Gina had ranted and ranted the whole way from Florida. The ball had to break free of the Earth’s gravity. It was light and energy and it could go faster once the denser particles were free.
--
Lauren watched as the monitors showed the ball rising higher and higher. It began to pick up speed. She switched to the long range scanners as it still flew faster and faster. The hours crept by and it got fast but not nearly as fast as its predecessors. The alien devices tracked it all the way to its target. After about twenty more minutes, the ship began to move.
She had stolen some notes from one of the head geeks and tried her best to send a message back through one of the devices. She really wish Kal would have come out of hiding to send the damn message himself but it would really be his fault if she messed it up. Coordinates of a moon in the outer solar system with land mass and oxygen.
--
Max pulled away from the Granilith, completely drained. He, and the others, staggered for the tent for some water and food and rest. Liz called for him the second he stepped into the tent. “Max, she’s still not moving.”
TBC
Gina got out of the car long before the pile up started. Left Alex behind with his family and just started walking. Cars were left on the side of the road. Most people were watching the sky but a handful were just waiting. She asked one why and got an answer. “Only lasts a few hours every day. The rest of the time, nothing happens. I wait for when the ground shakes.”
She was stopped at the barrier until her older sister found her. Then she was whisked away to a tent where they were all waiting. No one in this camp was watching the sky. She sat and waited. Then the car arrived from the desert and a lot of people got out. She and Berty rode in silence to the site where more tents were set up. She hugged her aunt and uncle and played with her little cousin for a minute.
The second Beth got up, Gina was on her. “Are you crazy?”
“What?” About seven people turned to stare at her but Gina would not be deterred.
“Are you crazy? Do you realize how much energy it’s going to take to fix their ship?” Gina began pacing and ranting. “I’ve been doing the calculations and it doesn’t bode well for you. If you fix their ship, it will kill you. Even if things aren’t as bad up there as we think… what if it’s much worse? We don’t have eyes on the ship.”
“No, you’re right. We don’t.” Beth acknowledged. “I like the new tattoo.”
“I’m starting to regret it already.” Gina nodded to her. “So, are you going to stop?”
“I’m going in one more time.” Beth nodded to them all and marched out to the Granilith.
--
Max refused to leave her. He stood next to it. He didn’t dare touch it but he was going to be there if he was needed. His feet were numb from the vibrations in the ground. The night was hot as it was and the bright light emitting from the Granilith seemed to make it that much brighter.
Liz waited in the tent. She couldn’t watch. Gabriel paced somehow. The tent shook furiously. The baby rested in his aunt’s arms, the older woman creating a pocket around the baby to prevent any harm. Then it all just stopped. Hours too soon.
Max stared up at the ball of light hovering over the Granilith but it made no move for the stars. Then Beth fell out of the Granilith, unconscious but somehow different from the way it happened before. She was pale and so still he really didn’t think she was breathing. Before he could make a move for her, he noticed that the ball of light had started to sink. He didn’t know what it would do if it landed. He had to focus to push it outward. He laid his hand on the Granilith but it wouldn’t take him. The ball stopped sinking. Then he felt them around him. His youngest son, his nieces, his other daughter… their hands on the Granilith and the ball of light rising higher into the air, much slower than its predecessors under Beth’s guidance.
Gabriel stole away with Beth’s still body while the others were focused on not blowing up the planet. Liz paced with the baby and waited with closed eyes. Her legs folded beneath her when the pain in her belly erupted at the same time that Gabriel let loose a cry. She managed to get the baby safely to the ground before she doubled over in pain. Gabriel grabbed his head, it felt like it was splitting in two.
--
President Maleda’s confusion grew when three agents assigned to the special unit suddenly went down, screaming and grasping their chests or arms. “What’s going on out there?”
“Same report. They have people going down.” Then the agent with the radio stared at it. “The radios usually don’t work when they use that thing.”
“It’s not on.” Maleda watched on the monitors as the normal high velocity was a mere crawl in comparison. “What is happening out there?”
--
Michael stood in his yard. The light was high enough that he could see it. Oriel stood beside him. He reached for that long dead connection with his old best friend. It flared open and then he was stuck in a trance. When Oriel touched his arm, her mind was blown wide open.
--
Danny saw it and knew something was wrong. He wanted to help but he was so far away. Emily was the one who started it. Reaching for it with her mind, fixating on it and when he touched her shoulder, he was pulled into it.
--
Alex shut his eyes and visualized it the way Gina had ranted and ranted the whole way from Florida. The ball had to break free of the Earth’s gravity. It was light and energy and it could go faster once the denser particles were free.
--
Lauren watched as the monitors showed the ball rising higher and higher. It began to pick up speed. She switched to the long range scanners as it still flew faster and faster. The hours crept by and it got fast but not nearly as fast as its predecessors. The alien devices tracked it all the way to its target. After about twenty more minutes, the ship began to move.
She had stolen some notes from one of the head geeks and tried her best to send a message back through one of the devices. She really wish Kal would have come out of hiding to send the damn message himself but it would really be his fault if she messed it up. Coordinates of a moon in the outer solar system with land mass and oxygen.
--
Max pulled away from the Granilith, completely drained. He, and the others, staggered for the tent for some water and food and rest. Liz called for him the second he stepped into the tent. “Max, she’s still not moving.”
TBC
Re: The Fate of Destiny Part 181E CC/UC ADULT 09/02/10 COMPLETE
The Fate of Destiny Part 181
Part E
The world watched the President of the United States as she stood at the podium without a prepared speech and watched as she considered her words carefully before speaking. “The last week has been an exciting one: Verification of life outside our planet, contact in a manner of speaking with these lifeforms, testing the boundaries of our collective humanity.
“I was not able to witness the riots in D.C., and London and Bethlehem. I am told they were horrific. I did not hear of the mass suicides until this morning. The world will grieve and heal in its way and in its time.
“This is both a sad and glorious day. The object was indeed a ship that carried the remains of two races, of two opposing political parties, away from a planet in another solar system. Their original trajectory would have brought these people to Earth. I call them people because “alien” is too harsh a term. I have done a lot of research in the past week and there was little to prove that these beings were “inhuman.” We have a lot in common.
“These people have visited Earth before. They have left some of their kind to walk amongst us. There was no nefarious purpose for this. Simply an experiment to see how well they could adapt to this planet. I’m afraid their track record with our governments left a lot to be desired. I could speak of the kidnappings and the tortures and violation of human rights… but it would only tear at an already torn race. I’ll leave you to be the judge of whose race I speak of.
“I am told that the energy supplied to the ship from a location within the United States was successful. The ship was able to restart its engines and make minor repairs to its life support system. I am also told that its trajectory has changed to that of a moon of our outer planets. I will not state which as I was not told and that is to protect the future of our continued existence as well as theirs.
“There are among us those with “alien” blood in them. They look no different from you or I. They want no different than you or I than to live and die in peace knowing love and growing their families. These individuals bore the enormous weight of guarding the device that saved the lives of the near-million on that ship.
“A woman died yesterday. A woman who was human and alien. She gave her life for those few on that ship. I was assured that the race had once been in the trillions. All their resources went into the one ship. That ship was sabotaged shortly after launch. They were doomed to die a horrific death and this woman sacrificed all the energy in her body over this last week to operate the device that saved them. This woman had a husband and a child… a mother, a father, brothers, sisters, cousins… just like you and I. I had the delight to speak to this woman. She wore blue jeans and a concert T-shirt, stained with baby vomit. She made me wait while she changed her child’s diaper. In my two years as president, I do not believe I’ve been made to wait for anyone that wasn’t a foreign dignitary. She spoke candidly about her family when I asked. She delighted in the tiniest accomplishments of her first and only child, just like I did when my first child was born.
“I’ve had a week to learn of these aliens. These people. I’ve had a week to get to know them in between their task of saving their people which took several hours each night. I know that they hurt and bleed just like we do. They cry and love. Love and lose. They are injured and they do heal faster and better than we do, but like us, not all injuries can be healed. They fight with their brothers and sisters. They fight with their parents. They run away from home. They are welcomed home when they run away. They mourn their parents when they die.
“The name of our heroine will not be recorded to respect the privacy of her family while they mourn. All inquiries will be turned back. Someday, when we are a better people ourselves, the details of this exciting week will be made public. I believe most of you will agree that our reaction to this knowledge has proven that we are not ready. The day may not be long off. Our space program and flight programs are very close to merging. We will someday in our grandchildren’s lifetime make our trips to space for ourselves. The destinies of our people seemed to have been meant to move forward together. That time has not come yet. I can only hope that when the time comes, we are ready.”
--
Gabriel hit the stop button and looked to his wife. “Kind of dramatic, huh.”
“Drama queen.” She nodded and shifted onto her side. “Speaking of which. My baby drama queen demands lots of chocolate, Tabasco and coffee.”
“Your mom knows you’re pregnant.”
“I know.”
“She’s coming over later.”
“Ugh.” Beth glanced around. “Where’s my child?”
“Playing with his uncles.”
“Your brothers will corrupt him.”
“I think they’ll be okay.” He kissed her forehead. “Are you still tired?”
“Yes. Carrying your children is hard work.” Beth squinted at the radio and it played softly to block out the street noise. “Getting a headache.”
“I’ll get you something.”
Beth watched him go with a smile. She loved their little apartment. “Somewhere between glory and disaster, Caught in a machine, that only goes faster…”
She loved his balding head and could barely remember the days when he had thick spiky hair and piercings all over. “Are these far away as it seems, sweet days of laughter, When we truly believed we get what we were after.”
“How did it change, Does anything remain, Still have that hunger, Is nothing the same as when we were younger.”
Gabriel was always disgustingly honest with her. She knew that her mother had said most men didn’t think about things in a way that women did. So his run-in with Anita had been just that and he didn’t love her so it wasn’t a big deal… to him. To Beth, it had been a reminder of so much pain. “When the hurt begins to mend, Let this night be the end, Can we slip beneath again the spell we were under, When we were younger.”
Lauren had reminded her that Gabriel had always been hers, even when they both thought he wasn’t. Gabriel settled on the bed with her and he had a whole plate of his special recipe, spicy dark chocolate brownies with coffee beans. He kissed her forehead. “You did a good.”
“Did I?”
“You’ll live to do more good.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“You psychic now?”
“No but I think baby Gina is.”
“She is not a baby anymore.”
“She’s 21. She’s a baby.”
“Let this troubled wind blow on by, And the light of the past is shining, let the future shine, Today’s memories blow sweeter with the passage of time, Cause nothing stays the same, everything remains, mystery and wonder, I’ll be the same as when we were younger.”
Gabriel answered the phone and refused to pass it on when ordered to. “She’s quite dead. Saw it on the news myself. If the TV says it, then it must be true… The president, herself, said she’s dead.”
Beth snatched the phone away from him. “Hey Donna Jo.”
“About time I heard your voice. I’ve been going crazy.” The soft and tired voice made its way across the wire.
“I missed you too.”
“You bet you did. Chuck is going to fly us all to Cabo so you can detox from your experience.”
“Oh, DJ, I don’t know.” Beth flicked her eyes to her husband. “I’m in delicate condition, right now.”
“So, get Papa Max to fix you up.”
Gabriel stole the phone back. “She’s pregnant, brain trust. She’s not going anywhere until we’re sure she’s going to be okay.”
“Gabriel, you dog. Have you no restraint? She just had one of your big-headed babies four months ago, she saved the world last week and you already jumped her bones?”
“Says the baby-making machine.”
“I am not.”
Beth took the phone back. “Donna, I’m tired. I’ll call you next week.”
Gabriel turned the phone off and set about readjusting all her pillows. Ignoring her silent laughter and pretending they had never been interrupted.
”Can the hurt begin to mend, Let this night be the end, Can we slip beneath again, the spell we were under, When we were younger, When the hurt begins to mend, Let this night be the end, Can we slip beneath again the spell we were under, When we were younger.”
Beth startled awake and realized she had fallen asleep mid-brownie. Gabriel had taken several pictures of her before he had removed the brownie and posted the pictures on the wall next to her head. Music and talking met her ears. She got up, washed up and changed into something comfortable. Her entire family had somehow managed to squeeze themselves into her apartment. Food was everywhere, before anyone had realized she had joined them, she had stuffed her mouth full of food. She couldn’t remember if she had been this hungry the last time she was pregnant.
“Watch out. Pregnant lady in the house, watch your fingers.” Gabriel shouted out as he fixed a plate and herded her over to an empty chair.
“Sweetie, Dad brought his pepper mix.” Liz held out a jar. Beth promptly dumped about half a cup of the peppers directly onto her plate.
“Gina, are you still dating that kingpin?” Gabriel teased.
“Shut up, he was not a drug dealer and no, I’m not dating him anymore.”
“So, who’d you dump him for?” Beth somehow managed to make herself heard around the piles of food in her mouth.
“Who says I dumped him FOR someone?”
“You’re a serial monogamist.” Beth pointed out.
Berty unbuttoned her suit jacket as she squeezed onto the couch. “Sam.”
“Sam?” Beth frowned. “Little Sam? Geeky Sam? Sam Allen?”
“What is so wrong with Sam?” Gina blurted out and the room erupted in laughter. “What?”
Beth leaned against her mother as she absentmindedly shoveled more food into her mouth. Everyone talked around her. Berty only talked about work but she was secretly seeing Seb on the side. Gina knew about it but grossed her out to no end. Alex had no clue about it. Between his kids and worrying about Kyle… Kyle who was going to pilot the first hybrid air-space craft when the two branches officially merged. Kyle who was screwing some lieutenant from another branch and thought maybe he might be a little bit in love. Gina was infatuated with Sam Allen but thought her past with men would be an issue. Sam only wanted to be loved. Living with Michael had helped him so much more than it had Chuck, but Chuck had Donna Jo and she reminded him of his mother in the good ways. David didn’t think anyone noticed that he had slipped out. He was such a little whore.
Michael’s boys were taller than he was and breaking hearts all over town. Little Laurie still had a few years of being a little girl before Michael had to start all over again with a teenager. Oriel was ready for it because she’d never really had to deal with Em from start to finish.
Lauren was dating some muckety muck she’d met while dealing with her bio-dad’s estate. She loved her baby sister but hardly ever saw her. She met with Chuck every so often to compare nightmares. They were good friends and kept up with each other’s circles, backed each other’s projects. Beth thought that if things had been different, they might have been a force to reckon with. But Chuck had Donna Jo and they were happy and attempting to reconcile with her parents.
Will. Beth smiled at the way he doted on her sister. He was getting ready to shift the entire unit over to Berty within the next five years but Kat wasn’t ready to slow down. She would probably never be ready to slow down.
Liz stroked her hair. “I remember that I found out I was pregnant with you when your brother drew your dad a picture. It was a family portrait and he said he was late giving it because he had to fix it.”
“Did that really happen?”
“It did.”
“Honey, we’re always here for you. You can talk to us.”
“I was scared.”
“We’re all scared, sweetie. It takes courage to do what you have to do in spite of that fear.” Liz wanted to ask but she didn’t dare.
“It’s a girl, Mom. I feel her. She’s going to be born and she’s going to be nine kinds of fucked up because of what I did.” Beth shut her eyes. “We were both going to die but we didn’t.”
“You pulled back.”
“I did.”
“And everyone else stepped up. And we will always do that. That’s what we do. We take care of each other. No matter where we are. No matter what. We’re going to do what has to be done.”
“I know.”
“Good. Now eat. You’ll need your strength to be pregnant with this one and take care of that one.”
Beth grinned and shoved another brownie into her face. She watched her dad play with his grandkids and his sister’s grandkids. She was scared. Her daughter was likely going to go mad. But her mother had taken care of her. Had treated her like the child she was the whole time. Had never given up on her. Gabriel swooped in and saved Max from the dogpile of children so that he could run to the hospital and save a life. Liz laughed at him all the way out the door.
Gabriel brought Beth more food. She stopped him leaving. She looked to her mother. “Mom, can we reconsider Dad’s offer of grandma’s house?”
The End
Thank you all. Love you lots!
Part E
The world watched the President of the United States as she stood at the podium without a prepared speech and watched as she considered her words carefully before speaking. “The last week has been an exciting one: Verification of life outside our planet, contact in a manner of speaking with these lifeforms, testing the boundaries of our collective humanity.
“I was not able to witness the riots in D.C., and London and Bethlehem. I am told they were horrific. I did not hear of the mass suicides until this morning. The world will grieve and heal in its way and in its time.
“This is both a sad and glorious day. The object was indeed a ship that carried the remains of two races, of two opposing political parties, away from a planet in another solar system. Their original trajectory would have brought these people to Earth. I call them people because “alien” is too harsh a term. I have done a lot of research in the past week and there was little to prove that these beings were “inhuman.” We have a lot in common.
“These people have visited Earth before. They have left some of their kind to walk amongst us. There was no nefarious purpose for this. Simply an experiment to see how well they could adapt to this planet. I’m afraid their track record with our governments left a lot to be desired. I could speak of the kidnappings and the tortures and violation of human rights… but it would only tear at an already torn race. I’ll leave you to be the judge of whose race I speak of.
“I am told that the energy supplied to the ship from a location within the United States was successful. The ship was able to restart its engines and make minor repairs to its life support system. I am also told that its trajectory has changed to that of a moon of our outer planets. I will not state which as I was not told and that is to protect the future of our continued existence as well as theirs.
“There are among us those with “alien” blood in them. They look no different from you or I. They want no different than you or I than to live and die in peace knowing love and growing their families. These individuals bore the enormous weight of guarding the device that saved the lives of the near-million on that ship.
“A woman died yesterday. A woman who was human and alien. She gave her life for those few on that ship. I was assured that the race had once been in the trillions. All their resources went into the one ship. That ship was sabotaged shortly after launch. They were doomed to die a horrific death and this woman sacrificed all the energy in her body over this last week to operate the device that saved them. This woman had a husband and a child… a mother, a father, brothers, sisters, cousins… just like you and I. I had the delight to speak to this woman. She wore blue jeans and a concert T-shirt, stained with baby vomit. She made me wait while she changed her child’s diaper. In my two years as president, I do not believe I’ve been made to wait for anyone that wasn’t a foreign dignitary. She spoke candidly about her family when I asked. She delighted in the tiniest accomplishments of her first and only child, just like I did when my first child was born.
“I’ve had a week to learn of these aliens. These people. I’ve had a week to get to know them in between their task of saving their people which took several hours each night. I know that they hurt and bleed just like we do. They cry and love. Love and lose. They are injured and they do heal faster and better than we do, but like us, not all injuries can be healed. They fight with their brothers and sisters. They fight with their parents. They run away from home. They are welcomed home when they run away. They mourn their parents when they die.
“The name of our heroine will not be recorded to respect the privacy of her family while they mourn. All inquiries will be turned back. Someday, when we are a better people ourselves, the details of this exciting week will be made public. I believe most of you will agree that our reaction to this knowledge has proven that we are not ready. The day may not be long off. Our space program and flight programs are very close to merging. We will someday in our grandchildren’s lifetime make our trips to space for ourselves. The destinies of our people seemed to have been meant to move forward together. That time has not come yet. I can only hope that when the time comes, we are ready.”
--
Gabriel hit the stop button and looked to his wife. “Kind of dramatic, huh.”
“Drama queen.” She nodded and shifted onto her side. “Speaking of which. My baby drama queen demands lots of chocolate, Tabasco and coffee.”
“Your mom knows you’re pregnant.”
“I know.”
“She’s coming over later.”
“Ugh.” Beth glanced around. “Where’s my child?”
“Playing with his uncles.”
“Your brothers will corrupt him.”
“I think they’ll be okay.” He kissed her forehead. “Are you still tired?”
“Yes. Carrying your children is hard work.” Beth squinted at the radio and it played softly to block out the street noise. “Getting a headache.”
“I’ll get you something.”
Beth watched him go with a smile. She loved their little apartment. “Somewhere between glory and disaster, Caught in a machine, that only goes faster…”
She loved his balding head and could barely remember the days when he had thick spiky hair and piercings all over. “Are these far away as it seems, sweet days of laughter, When we truly believed we get what we were after.”
“How did it change, Does anything remain, Still have that hunger, Is nothing the same as when we were younger.”
Gabriel was always disgustingly honest with her. She knew that her mother had said most men didn’t think about things in a way that women did. So his run-in with Anita had been just that and he didn’t love her so it wasn’t a big deal… to him. To Beth, it had been a reminder of so much pain. “When the hurt begins to mend, Let this night be the end, Can we slip beneath again the spell we were under, When we were younger.”
Lauren had reminded her that Gabriel had always been hers, even when they both thought he wasn’t. Gabriel settled on the bed with her and he had a whole plate of his special recipe, spicy dark chocolate brownies with coffee beans. He kissed her forehead. “You did a good.”
“Did I?”
“You’ll live to do more good.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“You psychic now?”
“No but I think baby Gina is.”
“She is not a baby anymore.”
“She’s 21. She’s a baby.”
“Let this troubled wind blow on by, And the light of the past is shining, let the future shine, Today’s memories blow sweeter with the passage of time, Cause nothing stays the same, everything remains, mystery and wonder, I’ll be the same as when we were younger.”
Gabriel answered the phone and refused to pass it on when ordered to. “She’s quite dead. Saw it on the news myself. If the TV says it, then it must be true… The president, herself, said she’s dead.”
Beth snatched the phone away from him. “Hey Donna Jo.”
“About time I heard your voice. I’ve been going crazy.” The soft and tired voice made its way across the wire.
“I missed you too.”
“You bet you did. Chuck is going to fly us all to Cabo so you can detox from your experience.”
“Oh, DJ, I don’t know.” Beth flicked her eyes to her husband. “I’m in delicate condition, right now.”
“So, get Papa Max to fix you up.”
Gabriel stole the phone back. “She’s pregnant, brain trust. She’s not going anywhere until we’re sure she’s going to be okay.”
“Gabriel, you dog. Have you no restraint? She just had one of your big-headed babies four months ago, she saved the world last week and you already jumped her bones?”
“Says the baby-making machine.”
“I am not.”
Beth took the phone back. “Donna, I’m tired. I’ll call you next week.”
Gabriel turned the phone off and set about readjusting all her pillows. Ignoring her silent laughter and pretending they had never been interrupted.
”Can the hurt begin to mend, Let this night be the end, Can we slip beneath again, the spell we were under, When we were younger, When the hurt begins to mend, Let this night be the end, Can we slip beneath again the spell we were under, When we were younger.”
Beth startled awake and realized she had fallen asleep mid-brownie. Gabriel had taken several pictures of her before he had removed the brownie and posted the pictures on the wall next to her head. Music and talking met her ears. She got up, washed up and changed into something comfortable. Her entire family had somehow managed to squeeze themselves into her apartment. Food was everywhere, before anyone had realized she had joined them, she had stuffed her mouth full of food. She couldn’t remember if she had been this hungry the last time she was pregnant.
“Watch out. Pregnant lady in the house, watch your fingers.” Gabriel shouted out as he fixed a plate and herded her over to an empty chair.
“Sweetie, Dad brought his pepper mix.” Liz held out a jar. Beth promptly dumped about half a cup of the peppers directly onto her plate.
“Gina, are you still dating that kingpin?” Gabriel teased.
“Shut up, he was not a drug dealer and no, I’m not dating him anymore.”
“So, who’d you dump him for?” Beth somehow managed to make herself heard around the piles of food in her mouth.
“Who says I dumped him FOR someone?”
“You’re a serial monogamist.” Beth pointed out.
Berty unbuttoned her suit jacket as she squeezed onto the couch. “Sam.”
“Sam?” Beth frowned. “Little Sam? Geeky Sam? Sam Allen?”
“What is so wrong with Sam?” Gina blurted out and the room erupted in laughter. “What?”
Beth leaned against her mother as she absentmindedly shoveled more food into her mouth. Everyone talked around her. Berty only talked about work but she was secretly seeing Seb on the side. Gina knew about it but grossed her out to no end. Alex had no clue about it. Between his kids and worrying about Kyle… Kyle who was going to pilot the first hybrid air-space craft when the two branches officially merged. Kyle who was screwing some lieutenant from another branch and thought maybe he might be a little bit in love. Gina was infatuated with Sam Allen but thought her past with men would be an issue. Sam only wanted to be loved. Living with Michael had helped him so much more than it had Chuck, but Chuck had Donna Jo and she reminded him of his mother in the good ways. David didn’t think anyone noticed that he had slipped out. He was such a little whore.
Michael’s boys were taller than he was and breaking hearts all over town. Little Laurie still had a few years of being a little girl before Michael had to start all over again with a teenager. Oriel was ready for it because she’d never really had to deal with Em from start to finish.
Lauren was dating some muckety muck she’d met while dealing with her bio-dad’s estate. She loved her baby sister but hardly ever saw her. She met with Chuck every so often to compare nightmares. They were good friends and kept up with each other’s circles, backed each other’s projects. Beth thought that if things had been different, they might have been a force to reckon with. But Chuck had Donna Jo and they were happy and attempting to reconcile with her parents.
Will. Beth smiled at the way he doted on her sister. He was getting ready to shift the entire unit over to Berty within the next five years but Kat wasn’t ready to slow down. She would probably never be ready to slow down.
Liz stroked her hair. “I remember that I found out I was pregnant with you when your brother drew your dad a picture. It was a family portrait and he said he was late giving it because he had to fix it.”
“Did that really happen?”
“It did.”
“Honey, we’re always here for you. You can talk to us.”
“I was scared.”
“We’re all scared, sweetie. It takes courage to do what you have to do in spite of that fear.” Liz wanted to ask but she didn’t dare.
“It’s a girl, Mom. I feel her. She’s going to be born and she’s going to be nine kinds of fucked up because of what I did.” Beth shut her eyes. “We were both going to die but we didn’t.”
“You pulled back.”
“I did.”
“And everyone else stepped up. And we will always do that. That’s what we do. We take care of each other. No matter where we are. No matter what. We’re going to do what has to be done.”
“I know.”
“Good. Now eat. You’ll need your strength to be pregnant with this one and take care of that one.”
Beth grinned and shoved another brownie into her face. She watched her dad play with his grandkids and his sister’s grandkids. She was scared. Her daughter was likely going to go mad. But her mother had taken care of her. Had treated her like the child she was the whole time. Had never given up on her. Gabriel swooped in and saved Max from the dogpile of children so that he could run to the hospital and save a life. Liz laughed at him all the way out the door.
Gabriel brought Beth more food. She stopped him leaving. She looked to her mother. “Mom, can we reconsider Dad’s offer of grandma’s house?”
The End
Thank you all. Love you lots!