Roswell Fanatics

10:00 AM Betty’s Restaurant, Tonopah Nevada.

Liz watched the young man sitting at the law enforcement table watch Anna, and shook her head. Several of the deputies had obviously been egging him on…..trying to get him to ask Anna out…to no avail. All they had succeeded in doing was getting the unfortunate young man to blush beet red. Apparently the young man was painfully shy…something Liz understood well, and about which she certainly sympathized with young Mr. Derkacht.

Both she and Max had been shy like that….she’d almost had to die to bring them together. Had that only been five months ago? It seemed like an eternity…so much had changed.

They hadn’t been late to work….but it had been real close. Amazing how un-shy two shy kids could become in only a couple of weeks, she thought to herself. ‘I wonder what it’d take to get the two of then together? A lot, I imagine. Anna still has whatever demons are bothering her…that young man….well, he’s apparently unable to even say hi to her. Too bad,….they might make a nice couple at that.’

10:15 AM 23A Airway Drive, Old military housing area, Tonopah Airport Nevada

The utility window had been closed, but not locked. It was a tight fit, but he managed to wriggle inside. He went through all the drawers…finally finding it in the top drawer of the small desk, an unmarked key. He tried it in the door lock and smiled when it opened almost soundlessly, a look of eager anticipation on his face. He had found what he had come for. But still…it would be hours before her shift was over…

He opened the dresser drawers one at a time,,,inspecting the contents. Finally he found it. He reached in and brought out the pair of panties and then brought them to his face, feeling the silkiness of the cotton and rayon against his cheek. His breathing became deeper as he felt the cloth against him….his need rising as he did so. ‘Perhaps tonight,’ he thought as he left the duplex.

1130 Det. 24 Cosmology Section, Area 51 Nevada

Peter and Laurie had brainstormed all morning…to no avail. It wasn’t that there wasn’t energy in biological organisms, there was. It’s just that the largest possible single quanta of energy available to the human body was the energy of hydrolysis of ATP to AMP, and while that was enough for purely biological functions, Peter just didn’t see how that would be enough energy to do any sort of telekinesis.
“I don’t know, Laurie. Either the story is all a myth, or we must be overlooking something. Let’s go break for lunch…..sometimes that helps.”

1130 Det. 24 Hangar B, Area 51 Nevada.


The ship tried….and failed….to bring itself up to consciousness. That really wasn’t all that surprising. It did that almost seventeen times a second. It was persistent…you had to give it that. The last time it had achieved consciousness was when Nasedo had energized the other orb with his touch, and that was over fifty years ago.

The ship had once been a sentient being…an artificial intelligence that encapsulated almost all of the knowledge of the race. It’s mission had been a simple one, to welcome this small planet of children back to their parent culture.

The ships that Peter would have described asBussard ramjets had departed Antar almost 200,000 years ago.

These great automated ships were designed to spread life throughout the galaxy. All had been one way trips, the embryos aboard secure in their pods. The years passed slowly inside those ships as the great interstellar ramjets accelerated to relativistic velocities while outside the ship millennia came and went.

The caretakers aboard….long-lived artificial lifeforms watching them for all those years…then raising them on their new worlds….had themselves long died out…even they could survive only a few hundred years. But the colonies had lived on…forgetting or never knowing their origins.

But this spacecraft was not one of the great fusion powered vessels that had spent a thousand lifetimes finding those few worlds where the seed of Antar could prosper. It was a far newer ship, with far newer technology……part of an effort that had been going on for less than five hundred earth years. It was one of the first of its kind…and had performed this mission six other times. The mission was to contact those long lost children of the seed of Antar…to invite them back into the fellowship of the race of their origin…to reclaim their heritage.

The ship had departed Antar almost 60 years ago with the embryos, modified by the DNA the remote probes had obtained from the citizens of this particular branch of the tree of Antarean life. When the ship had been whole, it had sometimes wondered at the necessity of that. Itself not even carbon-based, it could only wonder at cultures grown so isolated from the tree of Antar that such things as skin color or the size or shape of eyes or fingers might trigger xenophobic terror. But it had happened, and so the protocol was developed.

Each world would be led back into the community by beings modified by the DNA of that world….they would grow up there…taught by their protector and the teachers with them on this mission….be part of that society….be ambassadors to that society.
Then, if the society wished it…the technology would be given to them slowly and eventually their isolation ended.


On hundreds of worlds this protocol had worked, on a few it had not, their cultures choosing to remain separate. But the routine was established…the newer ships would go out accelerating to deep space with their pitch drives….accelerating not to relativistic velocities, but to a small fraction of that…then employing the FTL wormdrive to leap to those planets that had been colonized so very long ago.

But on this mission, the routine had gone disastrously wrong. It had been the merest speck of matter, but it had been drawn by the singularity to the mouth of the wormhole, just as the jump had occurred. It had smashed through the shields to destroy the number three power chamber, the concussion transmitted throughout the ship despite the inertial dampeners. Only the four pods and the artificial being that protected them had sustained no damage. Protected by their heavy inertial dampener shielding, they alone had come down totally intact.

The artificial intelligence was broken now…as broken as the structure of the ship that had crashed as it had fought against failing systems to carry its precious cargo to this planet. For in a very real sense, the ship was the intelligence, the logic engineered into all of the ship equipment combining to produce the critical mass of computational ability that permitted the ship to be self-aware. And for fifty years it had hovered on the edge of awareness. It had really lost little of itself in the exposion and crash…for redundancy was engineered into the ship. But it had lost continuity since the logic circuits in many of its parts were separated from ships power….those pieces long gone dormant. The effect was the same as a lobotomy…not irreversible, for the system was fault tolerant, but clearly without a change in the status quo, it would never again become conscious.

But one orb was now out of range…and the other long devoid of any power. Of the ship itself, only the three cylinders had ample power..since they generated their own. All other fragments were in survival mode…shut down….what little power remained listening for a signal from one of the orbs…and even in survival mode...their power was almost gone.

So the logic in the cylinders kept trying incessantly...not really sentient but knowing somehow that their mission was nearing failure. They had at most two Earth years....and they were trying hard....seventeen times a second. It just wasn't enough.

3:00 PM The Evans Residence, Roswell New Mexico

“You are going to do WHAT?” asked Diane Evans.

“I…uh….am going to the jewelry store with Alex….to look at rings.”

“Isabel….tell me you are kidding.”

Isabel had to smile. “So yesterday Mom…..I told you I was an alien…and you were OK with that. But today I tell you that I’m engaged to a perfectly wonderful young man…and you are going to freak out on me?”

“But Isabel….I… We….we haven’t even come up with an idea how to tell your father about the not-of-this-Earth part yet…and now this?”

“So which do you think will upset Dad the most, Mom? Maybe we can just tell him that one….then when he blows up, we can just whisper the other one to him…and maybe he won’t notice.”

Isabel hadn’t stopped smiling since she came home from school, and despite the shocking news…her attitude was infectious.

Diane laughed briefly, then said, “I’m not really sure…dear. I’d be willing to bet he doesn’t decide to send you to a boarding school though…..I think we’ve all learned that lesson. Is there anything about this that I should know about you and Alex, Isabel? I mean, when I saw him in your bed asleep….was there any…”

“Mother! Absolutely not. He just came over to cheer me up after Max left…we didn’t do anything. And we still aren’t doing anything, really.”

“I know what I mean by not really doing anything, Isabel…I’m not sure I know what you mean by not doing anything REALLY.”

“I guess I mean that we are planning on waiting to get….you know, physical…until we are married, and that won’t be until after graduation.”

“But….why engaged. Isabel?”

“Mom….ask Alex…he asked me…I was surprised….shocked….but I wasn’t going to turn him down. He’s a great guy…and I’m lucky to have him love me.”

“and he’s OK with this…Czechoslovakian stuff, as you say Liz and Maria used to call it.”

Isabel shook her head, still unable to get the smile off her face. “Would you believe, Mom…..I thought all those years that if anyone ever found out….my life would be ruined. So when three people found out…what happened? Liz and Max get married, Alex and I get engaged, and Maria is dating Michael.”

“Do you think that Maria has already told Michael about you and Max being ..uh....Czechoslovakians, Isabel?”

“Ooops…..Mom…something I forgot to tell you...we need to talk about Michael…..”


1600 Det. 24 Commander’s Conference Room, Area 51 Nevada.


“Ladies and gentlemen….the Chief of Staff bought off on the temporary move. I want everyone to start making plans to move all essential functions to Tonopah Test Range over the next week. Coordinate those plans with the Exec. He’ll be working both airlift and ground transport. Any questions?”

There were no questions from the assembled military department heads, and Slammer really hadn’t expected any. Selling this to the civilians, he knew, might well be harder.


7:00PM 23B Airway Drive, Old military housing area, Tonopah Airport Nevada

The jeep pulled in to the driveway and the young couple got out. It had been a long day and they had spent the last hour and a half at the Alternate High School, taking tests and getting textbooks for the two community college courses in which they were enrolled. The tests had gone extremely well, and they found that they could test out of a number of classes. They were signed up for the college level Freshmen English and beginning Calculus classes. They hadn’t yet figured out how they were going to get the credits transferred back to Roswell in 18 months…but at least they were going to be able to stay on track for college.


9:00 PM Red Lion Motel, El Paso Texas

“But why did we need to leave California? We were all settled in there…no one suspected anything. We were living normal lives.”

She wasn’t sure if he was ignoring her…or if he was lost somewhere in his own mind. He’d never been particularly stable, but he was getting noticeably worse….erratic…hostile…sometimes even bordering on violent.

“Can’t you give me any reason at all? I deserve SOME explanation….don’t I?”

He continued to sit there in the chair…staring off into the distance. She wasn’t even sure he heard her. Finally she walked over to where he was sitting and touched his forearm.

“I really need some input here…Why are we doing this?”

Suddenly he seemed to notice her, pulling his forearm from her grasp and looking at her angrily.

“Shut up, Tess. I know what I’m doing.”

9:05 PM 23B Airway Drive, Old military housing area, Tonopah Airport Nevada

BRINNGGGG!!

BRINNGGGG!!

Liz grabbed for the phone. Max seemed to be too engrossed with watching Westley rolling around the fire swamp wrestling an ROUS. They never had finished that movie the other night. She had cuddled up to him..he had run his fingers through her hair..she had playfully nibbled on his ear…he had playfully nibbled on her……well, you get the picture. And to tell the truth, that would likely have happened sometime in the next 15 minutes too, if the phone hadn’t started ringing. Oh yes, the phone….

“Hello”

“Beth, is that you?”

“Yes,…..Lucinda? What’s the matter?”

“Beth, we had a tour bus break down. They are getting it fixed but you know Betty Ann…rather than just have 50 people sit on a dark cold bus at the service station, she told them to come into the restaurant, put everyone on overtime. We are busier than you’d believe, and Rachel can’t stay because her childcare runs out. Betty Ann says she’ll fill in for her, but….”

“That’s OK, Lucinda, I’ll be glad to come help. I’ll be there in ten minites.”

"Thanks, Beth. You are a lifesaver...."

“What’s the matter, Liz.”

“Nothing Max. I just need to go to the restaurant for about 90 minutes to help them out.”

“Oh, I’ll go too then.”

“No sense in that, Max. Sounds like the place is packed, and it’s not like there’s much going on in the rest of the town this time of night. Why don’t you work on your calculus or something…I’ll be back before you know it.”

"Are you sure? I'd be glad just to ride along."

"Get the calculus done, Max," she said, grinning. "I just MIGHT have plans for you later tonight, and I don't want you staying up doing homework if I do."

“OK, Liz.”

As he watched through the blinds as the Jeep drove off, Max actually was planning to do the calculus. But as he was about to turn the little screen off he was dismayed to see Buttercup agree to marry Humperdink…sacrificing her own happiness to save her long lost Westley. He couldn’t leave the story at that.

A half mile away he watched in the darkness as the Jeep left the driveway. He looked again through the binoculars. There were lights on in 23A, but none in 23B. ‘They both must have left,’ he thought. ‘Now is my chance…’ He started walking across the desert toward the duplex.

In 23 A Airway Drive, there were a lot of lights on. Anna never felt really comfortable in the darkness…not since that night. Her mother had a lot of ‘boyfriends’ when she grew up…guys that would stay awhile. Sometimes just a few nights…sometimes a month…the parade was sort of endless until….. him. ‘Him’ was Arnold Martin. He was the first man that ever really showed any indication of sticking around…the first that actually seemed to want to have a permanent relationship with her mother. He was the first man that had ever seemed to think of Anna as anything other than a negative in their relationship to Anna’s mother…just an impediment to their….fun. And Arnold Martin was the first man that had ever really acted supportive of Anna, encouraging her to stop being the shy girl she had always been. And when he’d said that she should call him ‘Daddy,’..it had seemed like the dream she had been wishing for all of her life was coming true.

The dream became a nightmare, three nights later, when he came into her room. It was only a trailer…..her mother was home…it wasn’t like she couldn’t hear the screams. And it wasn’t just the pain when he’d forced himself inside of her…the tearing….the violation…if only it would have just been that…somehow she might have healed. She’d been crying incoherently after he had satisfied himself..and then he’d told her it was her fault…that she was just like her mother…she flaunted herself … she actually had wanted it...he could tell…or he wouldn’t have done it

She'd run from her small bedroom in tears….seeking the comfort of her mother. Her mother had been angry at first…Anna wasn’t sure why. Not at Arnie…but at her. And then she’d been pleading….begging her not to tell anyone. Her mother had told her it wouldn’t happen again…that she’d see to it…but just don’t tell anyone….or they’d lock Arnie up…take him away from Anna’s mom. She had to be quiet …tell no one.

Her mother had gone down to Anna’s bedroom then…Anna had heard them…heard them on her bed. She’d gone to where her mother kept her drugs and took them all, then ran from the trailer. She’d taken them all, hoping that she’d die…but she hadn’t. She got more…not enough to kill her…she didn’t have that much money. She’d work just long enough to buy enough drugs to dull the pain…to let her sleep nights.

Anna knew if the social worker hadn’t found her, she’d be dead by now. And if Betty Ann hadn’t helped her, she’d probably be back on the drugs. But Betty Ann believed in her and she had a small circle of friends like Beth who didn’t know that she was that kind of girl…even if she was sure all the men did. But that’s why the lights were blazing brightly in the small duplex..that’s why there was always a light on in the small duplex at night…even when Anna was sleeping.

But as it started to get late, she turned the lights off…one by one…leaving only the hall light on as she went to brush her teeth and get ready for bed. It was quiet in the little duplex when she came out and walked down the hall in her nightgown. As she stepped through the door to her bedroom she was congratulating herself on having survived drug-free for forty-two days when the arm came from behind the door, grabbing her waist while the other hand covered her mouth, both pulling her tightly against the body of Arnold Martin.

“Did you miss Daddy?”

10:15 PM 23B Airway Drive, Old military housing area, Tonopah Airport Nevada

Liz was glad to help, but she was just as happy that the bus had been fixed earlier than expected. She had tried to stay and help with the cleanup but both Lucinda, Betty Ann, and the busboy had shooed her away, saying she’d already done more than enough.

She was surprised though when she pulled into the driveway…surprised to see no lights burning in her own duplex and only a dim light burning in Anna’s….with the door standing wide open to the desert night.

She heard the crying as she stepped in the door of 23A, and followed it to the bedroom. A lot of newlywed wives might have been concerned as to what their husband was up to if they’d found him in a bedroom with a half naked 16 year old girl clinging to him, but the thought of infidelity really never crossed Liz’s mind. Besides, Max looked like crap.

It was 15 minutes later when the first deputy arrived, handcuffing Arnold Martin who was only starting to wake up. Max felt like a complete idiot…and rightly so. He’d heard the bump of the bed against the wall as Anna had been thrown into the bed. He had been hesitating at the door, planning to knock…realizing Anna would be uncomfortable being near him when Liz wasn’t there…but that had all changed when he heard the first scream.

He’d come into the bedroom just in time, but even that he thought was to his advantage, the big man would be hobbled by the pants dropping to his ankles. Max was confident…he was twenty years younger..and in great shape. Maybe it was the damn movie, The Princess Bride, where everyone seemed to believe in sportsmanship, but he had thought he could take the man without using his powers….mano a mano. He’d been an idiot.

Max had avoided fights all of his life…even the shoving contests with an occasional poorly aimed blow that most boys have in grade school. He hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone with his powers…or risk revealing them. He had neither skills nor experience at this. And yes, he was twenty years younger than Arnie, that made Arnie almost thirty-seven, hardly over the hill. And Martin had almost 6 inches of height and 60 pounds on Max, not to mention four inches of reach. While Max had been trying to fade into the background all of his life, Arnie had been an aggressive gangbanger and street fighter and while Max had been in junior and senior high school Martin had served two terms in the pen…three years in total, most of which he used to develop his body … pumping iron in the exercise yard.

Max was stunned before he’d even landed a blow, barely picking himself up of the floor before he was sent down again…and that had almost ended the fight. In fact, had Martin kept working on his head he would have been quickly rendered unconscious, but Martin had wanted to punish him. The pain from the kick was excruciating but the nausea was almost worse. He fought back the vomit rising in his throat …but it sort of woke him up.

Max actually had always been fond of his testicles…although up until 10 weeks ago he’d not actually believed he’d ever have much of a use for them. But the last ten days or so…well they’d made his life exceedingly enjoyable, and after the kick Max came to the only logical conclusion; The Marquise of Queensbury rules are wasted on a rapist.

He’d climbed slowly to his feet, strengthened his right arm and fist telekinetically, to avoid breaking his own bones. Then he’d pushed the fist telekinetically into Martin’s jaw at twice the velocity he could have thrown a punch. It hit the jaw and proceeded into the man’s face a good two inches farther than Max would have believed possible, and the blow also produced a most satisfying crunching noise. Then Max had collapsed onto his butt.

He’d been sitting there, Anna clinging to him, trying to figure out what day it was and whether he had a homework assignment due in fifth grade social studies class tomorrow…when Liz had walked in.

Max was feeling a little better by the time the Sheriff got there with his ride-along in tow. He had a large plastic bag full of ice applied to his face…another one…..well, he was kind of using it for a saddle. And the last time Liz had held up her hand… she’d only been holding up three fingers…not twelve.

Liz had gotten Anna into her robe and she was no longer clinging to Max…she was now willing to get three or four feet away from him….as long as Max was between her and Martin.

As Greg got the OK from the Sheriff, he got out of the car and entered the duplex. His eyes immediately went to Anna…he had never seen anyone so scared…so vulnerable appearing. He really had liked her…even though she seemed shy. Hell, he was shy too. He couldn’t believe anyone would attack someone so sweet…so ..so lovely. He shook his head, turning to look at the perpetrator that Deputy Armitage was taking out to lock in the back of the police car. When he recognized the face….the anger overwhelmed him.

Randy Armitage had no use for rapists, but even so, he felt the need to protect his prisoner when the boy attacked him, swinging his fists at a face that already looked a little smashed in.

“Whoa, son…can’t go doing that,” he said, separating the two with his body.

“Mr. Derkacht,” said the Sheriff, “What the hell do you think you are doing? Trying to attack a prisoner already in custody…with his hands cuffed behind him? You’re lucky that Deputy Armitage was there, otherwise you’d be charged with assault. I’ve half a mind to charge you with attempted assault anyway…and if I do that ends your enrollment in the State police academy.”

“You don’t understand, Sheriff. He’s wanted up in Fallon, where I come from. He raped a girl in my neighborhood…little Vicky Ramirez….Vicky is seven.”

All eyes in the room looked at Arnold Martin who tried his best to sneer at them, the effect spoiled by the jaw fracture and the broken teeth.

“Yeah,” said Martin, spitting some blood out on the floor. “She was a hot little bitch, too.”

Armitage pulled his prisoner around and started to march him out to the car, but the man turned back looking over his shoulder at Anna. “That one was a hot little bitch a year ago too. She wanted it….she wanted it BAD, just like her momma wanted it.”

Armitage kept walking his eyes straight ahead, but his arms gradually lengthening to push Martin further and further away from him. As Martin turned to look forward the metal doorjamb stopped him abruptly as it smashed into his already broken jaw.

“Watch the door, prisoner. Wouldn’t want you to get hurt,” Armitage said, his eyes looking at the Sheriff with exaggerated innocence.

Martin screamed in pain, then shouted back at Anna, “Your mom’s a slut, Anna, and you will be too…it’s in your blood. You can’t help it. You loved it when I did it to you before…didn’t you? You led me on….you asked for it.”

The sheriff’s eyes seemed to develop a sudden interest in the ceiling as the prisoner’s face accidentally hit the doorframe a second time on the way out. It may have accidentally hit the roof of the car as he was being loaded in to the back as well.

Anna sobbed quietly, her voice barely audible. “He’s probably right….Mom used drugs…sold herself for them. I used drugs too…I’ll probably end up the same way she has….maybe I did do something…somehow make him think it would be OK…”

“Now that’s just bullshit, Anna, and you know it.” Said Greg, "The problem is HIM, not you. You’re the victim here, not that asshole.”

Anna looked up angrily. “You don’t know...you weren’t even there.”

Liz smiled then. She’d seen that expression before, although never before on Anna. It was the expression that Maria always got, when she was arguing with Michael.

“Not even there?” said Greg. “I didn’t have to be there, Anna. I didn’t have to be there to know that Max didn’t ASK to have the shit kicked out of him. I sure didn’t have to be there to know that little Vicky didn’t ask the bastard to rape her…she’s in the first grade, Anna. And I didn’t have to be there to know that when he raped you before…you didn’t want that either, Anna. YOU are the victim, Anna. Not him.”

Yep, Liz thought. That was how Michael looked, when he’d argue with Maria. Suddenly she could see where this was going.

“Well there’s no way anyone will ever really know, Greg…will they? And no way anyone would ever want to be with me…because that question will always be there.”

The Sheriff was starting to enjoy this. He’d known Anna most of her life. This was the most spunk she’d ever shown. Sometimes these things were life-changing events. Maybe it would be tonight.

“Well I’d want to be with you, Anna,” said Greg. “You’re pretty, you're bright, you have a beautiful smile….I’d go out with you any time.”

“You would??”

“How about Saturday night…to the movie?”

“Now just hold on a minute, you two,” said the Sheriff. “This young lady has just been through an awful lot of emotional stress tonight, Mr. Derkacht. I don’t think it’s appropriate for you to start any sort of a relationship….”

”Oh, We’d be glad to double-date with them, Sheriff,” said Liz. “You know…to chaperone them…make sure everything was above board and OK. Wouldn’t we Max?”

“Uh-huh,” said Max, feeling the bruise on his right cheek as he spoke.

The Sheriff found himself looking at four teenagers….always a daunting prospect.

“Well, you and Anna have fun I guess. 'Beth', keep them out of trouble.”

Then he shook his head, realizing he had just instructed a sixteen year old runaway who had eloped with her underage boyfriend to keep someone ELSE out of trouble. Oh well, it had seemed like the right thing to do at the time….

Fifteen minutes later everyone was in Max and Liz’s house, while the Criminal Forensics people were documenting the scene in Anna’s half of the duplex. Max was still icing his face and gonads, and Liz was pouring cups of coffee for everyone who wanted one. The Sheriff looked somewhat concerned, and motioned Liz and Max to the side of the room.

“Uh…Beth….Mark…we have a little bit of a problem here.”

”Yes Sheriff?”

“The statements you gave for the shooting review…those two guys were dead, the deputy was shot, we had hundreds of pounds of Meth….those were a formality. It wouldn’t have mattered if you’d signed them Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.”

“We’ll use our right names this time, Sheriff,” said Max. “No way this guy walks…”


“What’s going on, Sheriff?” asked Anna, Greg at her side.

“Well,” said Liz. "Our names aren’t really Beth and Mark…We aren’t really eighteen…and we don’t really want our parents to find us until we are….but that doesn’t matter, he’s not getting away with it this time.”

“It may not be all that bad, Liz,” said the Sheriff. “I talked to the District Attorney…you met him, remember? Little Alissa’s grandfather. He’s going to let the people at Fallon extradite Martin for the rape of the little girl there. They have DNA evidence and everything. With the three-strikes law…he may go away for life. But if not, we can bring him back down and try him on this charge once he’s been tried up in Fallon…any time within the three year statute of limitations. It’ll probably take at least a year for that case to be settled. Most likely his lawyer won’t look at this one until that one is done but if he requests your statements…well, we have to give them to him. But the DA will give you a couple of days warning before he has to send them.”

Liz and Max smiled at the Sheriff. Yes, when the chips were down, you found out who your friends were indeed.

“Thanks, Sheriff.”

As the Sheriff left through the kitchen door he looked at the utility room, his trained powers of observation instantly noting the large dented area around the handle of the Maytag toploader. ‘So these are Greg and Anna’s chaperones, huh? Why do I feel like I’m asking the foxes to guard the henhouse….?’


Forty-five minutes later everyone was gone except Max, Liz, and Anna. Anna was in the ‘guest’ bedroom, the forensics people wanted to finish on her half of the duplex in the morning. Max and Liz had just settled down in bed, Max with his two icepacks.

“Come here, hero,” said Liz, as she kissed his bruised cheek and eye in the darkness of the bedroom. “Let me kiss it better.” And Max was surprised…because as she kissed it his face it really did feel like the pain of the bruise had lessened measurably.

“You know, Max…,” Liz started…..

“Don’t even think of it Liz. First of all, Anna is 20 feet down the hall. Secondly, I’m still pretty sore…thank you very much.”

“Max…you have to let the visible bruises heal naturally maybe, but you can use your powers down there…”

“What..You mean you aren’t going to kiss it better again??”

“Max…”

Twenty minutes later Anna was sound asleep, dreaming about a new life…one where she wasn’t the least bit fearful of Greg Derkacht. She was oblivious to the gentle squeaking of the box mattress down in the master bedroom.

Yes, Max had used his powers to take care of his less visible bruising. No, Liz really didn’t HAVE to kiss it better…..not that Max had minded a bit when she had.

0730 Det. 24 Commander’s Conference Room, Area 51 Nevada

There were almost ten of them there, but clearly eight of them weren’t all that upset. They seemed to be their because either Blaukopf or Schreiber…possibly both, had asked them to lend their support to the protest. It hadn’t surprised Slammer. He was the new guy, the others had known those two for years.

He listened as patiently as he could for 15 minutes, then asked.

“OK, if now isn’t a good time to move your research…move your experiments, when WOULD be a good time? Six weeks?

”Well… no, Colonel Randolph,” said Dr. Blaukopf. “Moving six weeks from now would also be disruptive.” The other heads around the table seemed to nod in agreement.

“Well Doctor Blaukopf….you tell me. What WOULD be a good date to move?”

“Well….in reality Colonel, any move would be disruptive. We shouldn’t move at all.”

Again the heads nodded in agreement.

“Well let me simplify the argument then, Gentlemen. You’ve all seen the condition of the building behind the wall in Biosciences. This physical plant is old…it has become unsafe. We WILL move eventually, because something will eventually collapse and kill someone. So why don’t we do it NOW, before that happens.....and avoid being idiots who have to see someone get killed before they do what must be done?”

Suddenly all eyes in the room were on Blaufeld and Schreiber. Blaufeld turned brick red…then left angrily with Schreiber close in trail.


8:00 AM Betty’s Restaurant, Tonopah Nevada.

Max had been really surprised when he looked in the mirror this morning. Yeah, he’d had a couple of scrapes and bruises, but the black eye he’d been so sure he would get wasn’t there. Apparently Liz kissing it better had really worked. He was taking his break and had come into the restaurant to see Liz. She and Anna were over at the Law Enforcement table, pouring coffee and socializing with the guys. Anna was still a little bruised around the mouth, where the guy had tried to keep her from screaming. But she was standing next to Greg, her hand on his shoulder, resting comfortably there.

Max knew he wasn’t God…he was realistic about his ability to heal people, and most of the hurt to Anna had never been physical. But he thought she’d come a long way in the past 24 hours. Maybe Greg really wasn’t the one who she’d be with forever…maybe it was too soon for her to even get close to him. But she was more comfortable with him than Max had ever seen her with any man...excepting himself, and he was most definitely already taken.

As Max watched, Susan Walker dropped by with little Alissa Sarah. He was only mildly worried as Liz played with her, before handing her off to Anna. Five minutes later Greg had somehow wound up with the infant, and the little girl and Greg were soon grinning and giggling at one another. Max watched Liz, who was watching Anna, who was watching Greg and Alissa with a look in her eyes that Max knew only too well from recent experience.

Oh…, he and Liz would go through the motions of chaperoning the two on a few dates alright, but Max knew that look. Anna was sizing him up for potential fatherhood duties. And Greg didn’t even know he was in her sights. ‘Poor kid,’ he thought. ‘…or more appropriately, lucky dog.’

Somehow Max thought Greg would be buying a ring before too long……and that Anna’s fear of being close to men was about to come to an abrupt end.

11:30 AM Freida’s Deli, Roswell New Mexico


They had barely known each other when the 5AM telephone call had forever changed her life, but Diane Evans was getting to know Nancy Parker quite well. The lunch date had been set up four days ago, ….before the more recent revelations by Isabel. The topic was supposed to be what they might do to support the young couple once the Sheriff and Angela succeeded in tracking them down, but Diane found her mind wandering to the more immediate problem…..how to break two BIG secrets to Philip.

“..and they have some new apartments being built over on Seventh street. They’re small, just barely bigger than an efficiency, but they’d be close to the school, on the same bus line as the Crashdown, and they do have covered parking,” said Nancy.

Diane was lost in some world of her own.

“Diane…? Are you OK?”

“I’m sorry Nancy….my mind was just somewhere else. Isabel was talking to me and…well I just have a few things that I need to discuss with Philip, and I’m not too sure how to go about doing it.”

“Well, what are friends for, Diane? I’ll be glad to help. Tell me what the problem is…”

While Diane was struggling to come up with a plausible lie, Amy DeLuca came out of the back, having just delivered an order of pies.

“Oh, Hi Amy,” said Nancy. “We haven’t spoken in quite a while. You know Diane Evans, don’t you? Why don’t you join us for lunch if you have the time?”

Maria had kept her mother informed of the messages from Max and Liz. Amy had other deliveries to make, but she imagined briefly how she’d feel if Maria had run off with someone and no one could find them. While she didn’t know Diane that well, and was, frankly, a little surprised the two women were on such good terms, given the circumstances, she felt obligated as the mother of a teenager to try to cheer them up a little.

“Sure Nancy, I have about a half hour. I’m really anxious for Liz and…Max, was it? I’m surprised either of you are holding up as well as you are. Have you heard anything from Jim…..uh, I mean Sheriff Valenti?

Nancy smiled. A month or two ago Liz had told her about the on-again off-again relationship between Maria’s mom and the Sheriff, not that it really mattered. It was one of the poorest kept secrets in town, probably known to everyone other than Kyle Valenti.

“Well, we know they were in Las Vegas on the 25th,” said Nancy. “After that, they seem to have disappeared from the face of the Earth. But Diane was just about to tell me about a different problem, with her daughter Isabel.”

“Oh? What’s going on with Isabel?” asked Amy. Amy pretty much knew Isabel only from what Maria had told her about the Ice Princess Posse clique, and little of that had been favorable. Although since Liz and Max had started dating, Maria had mentioned her a few times, like she knew her better now.

“Well, I don’t need to burden you two with my problems,” said Diane. “You’ve both got teenagers…you probably have plenty of teenager-related problems of your own…I know you do, Nancy…we share that one.”

“Hey, us parents of teenagers have to stick together, Diane,” said Amy. “Does Isabel have academic problems, or what?”

“A little bit more complicated than that I’m afraid, Amy. You see I don’t know how to tell my husband that Isabel has gotten herself…well….”

“Omigawd, not pregnant?” asked Nancy.

“No….certainly not…she got herself…engaged.”

“Engaged?” asked Amy, wondering who a stuck-up Ice Princess would get herself engaged to. Nancy was wondering the same thing.

“Yes, she told me yesterday…he asked her at school and she accepted. I barely was aware they were even going out, don’t even really know him all that well. I’ve got no idea how to break it to Phil.”

“But who is she engaged to? Do we know him?”

“Oh..sure, I mean your daughters introduced them to each other…it’s Alex.”

“Alex Whitman??!” said Nancy and Amy simultaneously.

“Yes, Alex Whitman.”

“Alex Whitman, a kind of tall lanky kid…plays the guitar?”asked Nancy.

“Yes..”

“Alex Whitman, Liz and Maria’s friend for the last ten years….that Alex Whitman?” asked Amy.

“That’s the one..”

“Are you quite sure it’s Alex WHITMAN, Diane?” asked Nancy.

“Pretty sure, Nancy. I saw her trying to do homework last night. She had two pages of doodling writing, ‘Isabel Whitman, Mrs. Isabel Whitman, Mrs. Alex Whitman, Mrs. Alexander Whitman, not to mention Isabel Evans-Whitman….although she had scratched that one out. Trust me, it’s Alex Whitman alright.”

“But little Alex…I mean…he’s a very nice boy but,….well I think the world of him but Isabel is so popular…why would she..?”

“According to Isabel, Alex asked, she was surprised, shocked, but he was a great guy and she wasn’t about to turn him down. She says they are waiting until after graduation to ……uh…complete the …uh…marriage and everything. I hope to God they do, Philip hasn’t recovered yet from Max and Liz, I haven’t either.”

“Well he is a great guy, Diane,” said Amy, Nancy nodding her head in concurrence. Isabel Evans’ stock had just gone up considerably in the opinion of Amy DeLuca. Alex really WAS a nice guy, she’d even kind of dropped a few hints to Maria about him…although both Maria and Liz had always treated him like a brother…or sometimes even like a gal pal. But if Isabel was intelligent and clear thinking enough to see Alex for the diamond in the rough he was, heck…she was probably an alright girl after all.

“Well, I’ll try to remember that when I tell Philip his princess is engaged. You’ll probably hear the explosion wherever you are, Roswell’s not that big a town. It’s so strange, really. I mean there were the two trios, Max, Michael and Isabel, and Liz, Maria and Alex, that barely had anything to do with one another for so many years. Then Max and Liz start dating and…boom…pretty soon all three of them are.”

Amy DeLuca felt a weird queasiness in her stomach as she heard those words.

“That’s right," she said. "Maria did mention to me that she’s been out on dates with that Michael kid with the funny hair. I certainly hope that Liz and Max and Isabel and Alex all getting serious don’t give those two any sorts of ideas…”

“You can relax about that, Amy,” said Nancy Parker. “I heard Maria talking to one of the other waitresses last night. Man does she dislike Michael. She didn’t have a thing good to say for the boy.”

“Oh shit..,” said Amy DeLuca.

“What’s wrong, Amy?” asked Nancy.

“That’s how Maria always acts when she really wants something, but she’d not sure she can have it. When her father left us when she was in second grade she bad-mouthed him constantly throughout the day, saying she was glad he was gone. But she cried herself to sleep at night for three years. When she’d want some toy for Christmas and I couldn’t afford it, she’d tell me all about what a lousy present it was, but you could see the longing in her eyes.

If she REALLY didn’t care for this Michael, she’d just ignore him. The more she puts him down…the more serious this is…and I know next to nothing about him….except he apparently lives in a trailer with some crude old coot on the wrong side of the tracks. Diane…do you know him?”

“Well, yes, sort of. He’s kind of chummed around with Max and Isabel since about the fifth grade.”

“Do you know him well?” asked Amy.

Considering the revelation Isabel had hit her with not even twenty-four hours ago, Diane could only say, “Apparently not as well as I thought. He’s been closer to Max and Isabel than he has to me.”

That might be OK, thought Amy. If Isabel was bright enough to appreciate what a good guy Alex was, she must be a pretty down to Earth sort of person.

“Well Diane, can you tell me what Isabel thinks of Michael?”

Diane struggled with her conscience, a deer-in-the-headlights-look briefly upon her face. Suddenly she smiled. “Why Isabel was just telling me yesterday that Michael…well that Michael is just out of this world, Amy.”

Strangely enough, that reassured Amy DeLuca.

1130 Hangar B, Area 51 Nevada

The last strains of Mozart were dying out as Lieutenant Laurie DelGado entered the room, visibly agitated.

“What’s wrong, Laurie?” Peter Stanbeck asked.

“I’m sorry, Peter. I was just supervising the packing of some old documents in Biosciences Section, came across a section in the library that was sort of screened off by itself. It had books from the Thirties and Forties. I understand a little technical German…..not that the pictures weren’t adequate to tell the story.”

“Those were ugly times for the whole world, Laurie. Sometimes we need reminders of that time….so it won’t happen again.”

“Not these reminders, Peter. I read one ‘experiment’ where they froze people to death…just to see how long it took….just to be able to produce a graph of time in cold water versus probability of death….yet we invited people like that into our country…made them citizens.”

“It was a different sort of time, Laurie. We had been through one devastating war, and thought that we’d likely be in another. When I was in grade school we used to have drills where we would all cower under our desks…waiting for the Soviet nuclear bombs and missiles to blow the windows out of our building…believing somehow the desks would let us survive such a thing.”

“Did you know the father of either Dr. Blaukopf or Dr. Schreiber?”

“Their fathers? I scarcely know the men themselves, Laurie. But I believe Dr. Blaufkopf’s father died in an accident…at some other lab, before I ever came here.”

“You don’t know Blaukopf or Schreiber? But how is that possible? You’ve worked in the same small facility for thirty-five years…and you don’t know them?”

“We went to an international Scientific meeting together, the three of us….thirty-five years ago. At the meeting I introduced them to Stephen Hawking. He could still walk then, his ALS wasn’t yet all that bad. They told me he was an ‘inferior specimen,’ a ‘defective,’ and I should not associate with him….told me that with him standing there….told me that If I associated with him, I shouldn’t associate with them. It was certainly an easy choice to make…”

“How can intelligent people think like that?”

“Stephen and I talked about that for several years….eventually gave it up….a Unified Field Theory will probably be easier to understand than the workings of the human mind….but still…we shared some interesting thoughts. Stephen believes that some ideas are sort of like computer viruses….they are contagious. Particularly for simple people, people that are one dimensional, that don’t have broader interests….that define their existence as just one narrow little job. And it doesn’t matter if such people are scientists or politicians,…the idea corrupts them.”

“Maybe if they were real stupid…but intelligent people?”

“History is full of that, Laurie. The Spanish Inquisition was led by some of the most intelligent people of it’s day. The Nazi party in Germany borrowed many of its ideas about eugenics from the Eugenics movement in the US and Great Britain…movements that had brilliant people like Oliver Wendell Holmes, Margaret Sanger.., sometimes even brilliant people are one-dimensional….look at some of our computer nerds in IT if you don’t believe me.”

“It’s just that….to actually get intelligent people to kill others….like lab rats in some experiment….”

“I’m sorry Laurie, but the world is full of such cases. You must recall the Heaven’s Gate cult…it was only a few years ago. Thirty-nine people stuck five dollars worth of quarters in their pockets, put on their Nike sneakers, their purple arm bands, and then committed suicide. Many were very intelligent people, but …whatever idea had corrupted their minds, it might as well have been a computer virus. Did you know that six of those people actually castrated themselves years before their suicide? So they could remain ‘pure’ for when the comet came with the flying saucer behind it to whisk them off to nirvana?”

“That just seems incomprehensible to me, Peter, that people could actually believe something like that?”

“It is bizarre, Laurie. There were even Jews that hid their family history and joined the Nazis…actually supporting a movement that wanted to destroy them. And then there are things like the Stockholm syndrome…Patty Hearst, and the like. Cases where captives bought in to all or part of the ideas of their captors.

About the only common denominator is that these people seem to be kind of single-minded…they tend to devote their lives to one cause. Somehow they seem to be the easiest people to infect with these kind of mental viruses that corrupt their brains…if such viruses really do exist. Stephen believes in it…I’m not sure that I do entirely.”

1130 Biosciences Department, Doctor Blaukopf’s office, Area 51 Nevada.

When he had found the old 16mm movie, he had needed to see it again. They had taken down his freak wall, but he still had this….this to remind him….to remind both of them, what the only really important thing was about their work here.

No one used movie projectors anymore, it had taken him a while to find one….still longer to find and replace the bulb. The screen was only a wall of his room, the pictures from it already removed and packed…..but it didn’t matter to him….the creature was clearly visible in the projection.


“Hubertus, you really should not have that film here. It shows….the other facility.”

“Look at it, Kurt. Look at that creature….that….obscene miscreant that killed my father. It was a stupid bioandroid, sub normal intelligence…hell, the thing was even sexless….just some simple-minded caretaker for the embryos….and yet it killed my father.”

“They all made a mistake, Hubertus……everyone at the facility. Just because something is inferior doesn’t mean it didn’t have some sort of a native cunning. A rattlesnake is not smart, but it has a deadly bite. And it was built to endure...look at how it kept from telling us where the orb was...where the pods were....even through two years of torture that would have driven any man insane. And maybe...maybe they should have just killed it earlier...then your father would still be alive, and we'd have only the pods to worry about. As Nietzsche said, 'What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.' We won't make the same mistake the next time.”

“But the drugs worked on him….for two years they worked.”

“People become tolerant to drugs over time, Hubertus...you know that. Perhaps he did too. He must have in fact…or there would have been no handprint on your father’s chest.”

“But Kurt…..the locks, all the combinations he would have needed to get out of the facility…even after he killed my father. My father would have never given him those willingly….could he have somehow connected with him….stolen those secrets from his mind? And if he stole those secrets, what else might he have stolen.”

"It doesn't matter, Hubertus. We will find him....him and the embryos. We will destroy them......destroy them all. He cannot hide from us forever..."

2:00 PM Registration Desk, West Roswell High School, Rosewell New Mexico

It had been ten years, and still it frightened him being here…only twenty-five miles from the facility where he had been tortured. And he didn’t like being around these people…..even the two years he’d spent in the cave…trying to recover from the effects of the torture…he hadn’t really trusted any of them.

Nasedo wouldn’t even be here now...in this building, he realized, if it had not been for the prime purpose….instilled in him in the tank where he had been grown…to protect the embryos and the beings that they would become. Since the teachers had died….he had educated Tess, but she needed more…and he was compelled to bring her to a facility where they could teach her more…more than he knew.

But it had been hard to return…hard to return even the first time…and then too late. Three of the four pods had already brought their charges to maturity…discharged them into the desert. He had taken Tess and run…back to California. But finally he had tracked them down over the internet…..the only three orphans that had been discovered wandering in the desert ten years ago….now Maxwell Evans, Isabel Evans, and Michael Guerin…

And the prime purpose now had another purpose, a purpose almost as strong. He’d contemplated the strange thoughts he had gotten from the native that he’d connected to when he’d stolen the combinations from his mind…just before killing him. He had decided that there was indeed a master race….the race that had created him. It was foolish of course for that race to want these degenerates from Earth back into that race. Generations of genetic drift had rendered them ignorant barbarians, lacking even the ability to manipulate matter.

His purpose now was to find the other three….to teach them as he had taught Tess. Even they were not the pure strain of the master race…modified as they were by the degenerate DNA of this planet to hide their appearance. But perhaps when he bred them…when he interbred their children…and their children’s children…perhaps he could coax from their DNA the glorious appearance of their parent race.

Yes, he would breed Zan to Tess, and Rath to Vilandra…then interbreed their progeny, teaching them all the new purpose of their existences. He would not live to see it, but the glorious day would come when the progeny of these four would not only rule this world, but burst forth back to Antar to carry the word…to stop the policy of Antar of reclaiming these defective savages…the policy that was leading to the miscegenation of the pure strain of Antarean blood.

Yes, he would die…but he would have another one hundred-fifty Earth years…time enough…time enough to build the cadre that would carry the cause back to the mother world….time enough to build a movement that would someday force the Antarean Council to change their obscene policy of assimilation of the inferior species spread during the first great interstellar exodus.

He would teach the four…force them if he had to…on some worlds......a few, the ambassadors had not even bonded with each other…they had defiled their own DNA by bonding with natives. His mind recoiled at the thought. This he would not…could not allow. No, he would see that they bred true, that their progeny carried the light of his wisdom back to the home world.

It would take a few millennia…he would not live to see it. But it would happen, he was sure of it. He would make it happen. And a millennia wasn’t all that long, if you really thought about it. The current Antarean council had governed for 50,000 years. He intended for the New Order to last far longer than that.

“Mr. Harding?” The secretary hated to interrupt, but he appeared to have sort of spaced out while filling out the enrollment forms.”

“What!? Yes, what is it?”

“If you are done with those, I’ll take them. Maybe I can find someone to show Tess around, before she starts here tomorrow?”

“Yes…yes…that would be….fine…yes, fine.”

2:15 PM Second Floor, North Hall, West Roswell High School, Roswell New Mexico.

“Maria, I need to go to class now. The bell has already rung.”

“Oh, like you suddenly have some big problem skipping class, Michael? Half the classes you take, your teachers wouldn’t even recognize you if you showed up. But I want just a minute of your time….and suddenly you can’t possibly be late to a single class.”

“Maria, we started this at lunch. We’ve missed two classes already. I told you then, and I told you now…I don’t think that school is a particularly good time or place to discuss……that.”

“That…? My God, Michael. You can’t even say the word. It’s COMMITMENT, dammit. That’s C-O-M-M-I-T-M-E-N-T!”

“Maria, I think you are becoming a little bit hysterical here. I’m perfectly willing to discuss comm……THAT, at the appropriate time and place. But school isn’t the right time or place.”

“It isn’t?”

”No, Maria, it certainly isn’t. I just can’t do that here.”

“Well Alex didn’t have any problem talking commitment in school, Michael. In the friggin vice-principal’s office. And Isabel didn’t have any trouble either….even with Mrs. Hochstetter sitting there watching….”

“And there you go…Maria....my very point. The poor woman still hasn’t been able to get her jaw closed. Some things are just better off not discussed publicly…”

“Not publicly…huh? Well the eraser room isn’t public….”

“No it isn’t….”

“Race you there….”

“No fair pushing…that is SO childish, Maria.”

“Hey, it’s not like anything is going to happen until you get there anyway, Michael. Lighten up.”

2:45 PM Second Floor South Hall, West Roswell High School, Roswell New Mexico

“It’s very nice of you to take the time to show me around the school.”

“Hey, it’s not like you’re difficult to be with, Tess. UH…..maybe you would like to see some of the sights around town too, after the school tour is over.”

“I’m afraid my Guardian…that is, my uncle Ed…..he really wouldn’t approve of me dating hu….uh…..football players. He thinks they are kind of…barbaric.”

“Well hey, Tess…..football season’s not until September…he wouldn’t have to know.”

“I think not. But you do give a nice tour. We saw the gym, the pool, the football stadium, the track, the baseball field……do they have any science laboratories or classrooms here?”

“Oh sure….I’ll show you them next. Just keeping the best for last.”

“What’s that little door?”

“That….oh THAT…..that’s the eraser room. Once upon a time people cleaned eraser’s in there…..probably thirty years ago. “

“So what do people do with it now?”

“Well, they just kind of use it when they sort of …..uh….want to be alone a little bit, I guess. You can open it if you want, the lock’s on the inside…if there’s anyone in there, I’m sure they’d have remembered to use it.”

She got the door almost half open before his eyes went wide with alarm and he slammed it shut.

“WHAT WAS THAT!!?” Tess asked.

“I’m not really sure. But I’m pretty sure that whatever it was….well, they probably want to be left alone doing it.”

“That’d be my guess. You know….forget what I said….let’s go someplace for a soda or something. I need to get that picture out of my mind.”

“Are you sure, Tess? I don’t want to get you in trouble with your uncle.”

“Kyle, trust me. I need a little normal conversation and a few minutes of being with someone normal….otherwise, I’m going to have nightmares about that room for a week….”