by Bob Bannon
It ended right up against the back of a three-story parking structure. The only dividing line between green and cement was the iron fence. He looked to his right and saw a picnic table in the back corner that sat between two bare trees with a third just a few feet away. He guessed that was the one he was supposed to go to. As he sat down on the picnic table he saw that, while not a large place, you couldn’t really see the sidewalk where he’d entered from this far back. When he looked up at the parking structure, he saw that he could clearly see if someone was watching from floors above. This seemed like a pretty secure location for sharing secrets.
He waited, then he paced. Then he sat down again. Then he paced some more. That girl had said there was someone after him. So, clearly, the ‘dangerous men’ had not finished their job. But how would Athena Stapleton know about those men? If she did know about them, why hadn’t they come for her? As he tried to line the questions up in his head, he wondered if he should write them down in the tablet. But would it be rude to rapid-fire questions at this woman?
Just as all this went through his mind and he sat on the table once again, he looked up to see Athena Stapleton walking down the path.
She approached him slowly, she looked over her shoulder and then up at the parking structure. When she was sure they were alone, she moved closer, taking off her light, white gloves. There was a light in her eyes, she was clearly fascinated by Jonah. She moved the back of her fingers slowly towards his face. She stroked him under his chin, then up the side of his cheek.
“Such a boy,” she said with wonder. “What are you called, boy?”
“Jonah,” he answered, transfixed by her fascination.
She smiled a knowing smile. “His father’s name. I could have guessed.”
“Who?” He asked. “Who’s father?”
“Doctor Havensby’s, of course,” she answered. She sat on the bench of the picnic table while he stayed on the table itself.
“You knew my dad?” He asked.
“Your dad?” She asked back. “You think of him as your father? Well of course you do, I suppose.”
“What do you mean?” Jonah demanded. “Of course he was my father. What are you talking about?” He got up off the picnic table.
“Jonah,” she said. “Sit.” She held out her hand. He wasn’t sure if he was going to take it, until he did, and sat down next to her on the bench.
“What do you know about you and your father?” She asked.
“What do you mean?” He asked. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Well, let’s start with when you last saw him. Diana says you say that your father is dead.” She took Jonah’s hand in both of hers. “You tell me how this happened, and how you came to me, and I’ll see what I can tell you.”
He didn’t know this woman, but the message in the notebook inferred that she would be able to help. And she had a connection to his father. She knew him. He wasn’t sure if he should tell his story or not, but he decided he was going to, and he wasn’t going to leave anything out. If he was completely honest with her, he was counting on her being completely honest with him.
So, he recounted the entire story, from the house exploding, to the green gem, to meeting Eric, to the weird messages in the notebook. He held nothing back from her. As it was with Eric, the tale seemed to lift some weight off of him. Jonah felt as if he were physically lighter sharing all of this. She asked no questions. She was completely still, with his hand in hers.
The sun was starting to move lower in the sky by the time he was done. He guessed he had been talking for at least twenty-five minutes. It must be after seven by now.
She digested the story, she took a few deep breaths and let them out slowly. She closed her eyes for just a moment. Jonah guessed that she was looking for a place to start her side of things.
“Oh, Nickolas,” She said quietly with her head down. She shook her head and once again looked at Jonah.
“Well, Jonah.” She said. It seemed like she wanted to say his name. “I can tell you this. Your father did not steal three million dollars. That was a story made up by people that wanted him found. Needed him found. She corrected herself. “They’ve been repeating that story every so often for years.”
“What? I..” He started to speak again, but she cut him off with a pat on his hand.
“What he did steal, was you.”
He shifted and pulled away. He got up and paced. He took a breath to say something and she said “Sit.” And patted the bench.
He sat back down.
“Jonah,” she said again, “What do you know about Mars? Have you ever heard of the Martian rovers? Do you know anything about that?”
“There are three of them,” he answered. “My dad made me do a report on them. They were sent to explore the surface of Mars, except one of them doesn’t really work anymore. I think it got stuck somewhere or something, I don’t remember which one.”
“Very good,” She said, clearly impressed. “Very good. But nothing occurred to you during your report? Nothing that struck you as odd? That must be why your father asked you to do it. You didn’t have any spark of a memory?”
“I don’t…” He started. He had no idea where this was going. “Please, just tell me what you mean by…”
Again, she cut him off. “Jonah, nine years ago, a special team was assembled to design a different kind of lander, but this wasn’t just a rover. We wanted to launch a Martian lander that could retrieve actual specimens from the surface and then return them to us. But that’s a very big, expensive undertaking. So we formed the I.A.E. and shared the expense with several other countries.”
She took his hands again and looked him in the eyes to see if he was following. “We called this lander Intention. It was a big gamble. It’s nearly impossible to land something on mars intact. Hundreds of things could go wrong, and if just one does, you could lose the entire mission. So, to re-launch a lander from the ground, and back through the atmosphere... Well, we weren’t even sure if that could work. That’s one reason we never announced it to the public. But, two years later, we successfully launched it from Earth and eight months later, we successfully landed on Mars.”
“And my dad was a part of this?” Jonah asked.
“Oh, yes,” She answered. “Your father and I were in charge of the whole project.”
“As I was saying,” she continued. “It was very successful. We were right on target and we were collecting very nice rock specimens. For a scientist, it was very exciting.” She smiled. “But then we found something on the camera that we had never seen before. Not in all the time the first rovers had been there.”
“What was it?” he asked.
“There seemed to be a green rock formation in the crater we had landed in. It took a lot of maneuvering, but in about three days, we came upon it. We weren’t sure, but it looked like an ancient volcano had blown these gemstones out into the crater. We were just lucky enough to see one before they were covered up by sand again. We were able to retrieve one of them and carry on with the mission.”
Jonah put his hand on his chest. He felt the green gem. His breath was catching in his throat. He felt like the gem had become ten pounds heavier. He slowly dug it out. He took it off and slowly handed it over to her.
“Yes,” She said, the light of fascination coming back in her eyes. “He did take it, didn’t he.” She held it by the chain and looked at it. “Of course, it was much larger when we found it. It was about the size of a softball, I would say.”
“My dad said it was his life’s work. He said it more than a few times, actually.”
“Well yes,” She said. “Your father was so intent on finding the answers to this.” She turned it over in her hand. “You see, Jonah, gemstones are made of many different minerals that give them many different properties. Diamonds are made from carbon, and rubies are made from aluminum oxide. Others are made from crystals. When we finally got to study this gemstone, it turned out to be unlike anything we’ve
ever seen. It has a carbon structure, but it also contains crystal structures deep inside of it. It should be very fragile because of that, but we found nothing that could even make a dent in it.” She paused, and then pressed the stone into his hand. She dropped the chain and then wrapped his hand around the stone. “Except for you, that is.”
Jonah was stumped. “But I’ve never broken it. I’ve never done anything to it. I’ve only had it in my hands about ten times in my whole life. My dad wouldn’t even let me in the lab when he worked with it.” He was about to go on when she interrupted.
“So your father carried on with his experiments? He allowed you contact with it?” She asked.
“Only sometimes. Like I said.” He was becoming agitated.
“Let me finish the story,” she said. “As I was saying, Jonah, the Intention Mission lasted only five months after it landed safely on the planet. We were able to retrieve samples from near volcanoes, and in craters, from dried river beds, it was all very successful. We were even successful at launching the small cargo container back into the atmosphere. There was a moment or two that we thought we’d lost it, but you can imagine how happy we were to get the signal that it was on its way back to us.”
Jonah didn’t interrupt this time. He listened intently.
“Eight months later,” she continued, “The cargo rocket touched down in the pacific ocean – not so very far from where we are now. We had set up a laboratory in Seattle and we waited for the specimens to be delivered. That very same day we put everything in decontamination, where it stayed for a week. Your father was so intent on getting to that gemstone, he nearly broke contamination. Twice.” She laughed.
Jonah smiled weakly, he put the chain back around his neck, but kept hold of the gem against his chest.
“I’m sorry. I did have a great deal of respect for your father. And I liked him a lot too,” she said, holding her hand against his cheek. Jonah wasn’t sure if it was an apology for getting sidetracked or an apology for his father’s death.
“Anyway,” she continued. “When we were finally allowed access, that was the first thing your father wanted. It was put into an isolette – that’s a small plastic box that has openings on the side. Those openings have medical gloves built right into them, so the scientists can reach in and examine matter that’s inside without getting exposed to the matter itself. It can also regulate pressure and oxygen and heat. Do you understand?”
He nodded.
“Well,” she said, “my very first reaction was that it seemed much smaller than the video from the planet led us to believe. I found that very odd. Imagine thinking something looked as big as a softball, but when we finally saw it eight months later, it was just the little sliver you have now.”
He hadn’t let go of it the entire time she talked.
“Our first job was to clean the specimen. It was caked with dirt. We started with just ordinary toothbrushes. You know sometimes scientists use the most simple things because they work.” She smiled again and patted his leg. But then you jumped up and started all sorts of commotion.”
“Wait.” He said, standing up. “I was there? I was in the room? How come I don’t remember that? I don’t even remember being in Seattle. Not ever. Not in my whole life.”
“Jonah,” she said, but then was silent for a moment. “Your father really should have told you this. I’m so sorry. This will be a shock for you. Will you please sit down?”
“No. I don’t want to sit.” He said. “Just tell me how I was there and why I don’t remember any of it.”
“Well,” she started, and then searched for more words. “Jonah, you weren’t the boy you are now. You weren’t a boy at all.”
“What?!” It was a question and a demand in one brief word.
“What I’m trying to tell you, is that when we were cleaning the gemstone, we found that it wasn’t surrounded by dirt and rock. It was you, Jonah. It was a life-form.”
Jonah spun on his heel without realizing it. He walked directly toward the nearest tree and then spun back. “That’s not true. That isn’t true! You said it was almost seven years ago. I’m not seven years old! I remember when I was seven years old! I remember…” but he didn’t. Absolutely nothing came to his recollection. “It isn’t true!”
She stood, clearly concerned for him. He had gone white as a sheet and was looking in all directions as if he were searching for something. Maybe something to hold on to.
“Jonah, you were an incredible carbon and silican life-form. You looked just like sand. Sand that moved like water, rolling and flowing around that plastic box, but always returning to that gemstone. We think maybe you had been feeding on it since the rover scooped you up. We think that it sustained you…”
Jonah turned and threw up all over the base of the tree. Then he wretched again.
Athena walked over to him. She took out a tissue from her purse and handed it to him as he was still doubled over. He took it and she tentatively put her hand on his back. When he stood up, wiping his mouth, she put that hand on his shoulder.
“Your father broke a number of protocols that day. He was so fascinated by you that he put his hand back in the glove in the isolette. He wanted to touch you he wanted to see if you could respond to touch. That was the first of many wrong moves he made.”
She put her hand back on his cheek. She may have done it to prove to herself that she wasn’t afraid of him.
“When he did, your entire being, this little ball of wet sand, you flung yourself at his hand and latched on. He said you were biting him, that you had a hold of him. I was immediately at his side and I pulled him free. There was a large welt just at the base of his thumb. I pushed the isolette into an emergency containment area and slammed the door.”
She went and sat back down. Jonah stayed where he was, now breathing hard and sweating in spite of the sharp drop in temperature since the sun had gone down. The park lamp near the path was the only illumination besides a full moon in a clear, crisp sky.
“Your father said we shouldn’t tell anyone what had happened. We, of course, were going to have to tell them about you, but he begged me not to tell anyone about the bite. I agreed, but only so long as he let me run a battery of tests on him, just to make sure he wasn’t infected by anything. And he agreed.”
For the next two weeks, there was a flurry of military activity around the lab. Guards were posted, procedures for trying to eliminate you were discussed. But we didn’t know if anything could kill you. You’d survived the vacuum of space, we weren’t sure if you could even be injured. Your father, of course, refused to discuss invasive experiments that would determine such things.”
“When we were finally allowed access to you again, the entire isolette you were in was placed in a larger one, one that didn’t have access points. We conducted every test we could think of that didn’t involve direct contact. The military had specifically barred contact if your father wasn’t going to search for ways to exterminate you.”
“We found from a CAT scan that you did have a circulatory system, but we couldn’t find anything that was pumping it. We couldn’t find any internal organs at all, much less how you would have bitten Nickolas. But during the third week, something began to change. You began to grow. And from that growth, we began to see small formations of organs. Human organs.”
Jonah was in a daze he was trying to process all of this as fast as she was saying it, and found that he couldn’t. He wasn’t really human? He wasn’t really fourteen? He was from another planet? He spun and threw up on the tree again. Athena rose once more, and offered him another tissue from her purse.
“In another week, you looked like you were four years old. The week after that, you were eight. Your father broke protocol and went into the emergency containment room that had become your home. He did reflexology tests and tests to see if you could understand simple instruction. You couldn’t talk, or didn’t, but somehow you understood the language.”
“When he took a bloo
d sample, you passed out for an hour and a half. The blood sample confirmed what we had thought, from the bite you had taken out of him, you incorporated his DNA into your own. So, as I said, he was pretty much your father. You weren’t strictly a clone, because there were other unidentifiable components in your blood, and in the DNA. When the military discovered your father had provided that initial contact, and had provided you with a basis to grow into whatever you were becoming, they decided to terminate the entire project. Do you understand what that means?”
Jonah understood what she meant. He was wiping at his mouth with his coat sleeve and he nodded.
“Your father was adamant that you were not a threat. He argued that you might be the most important biological discovery of all time. He tried to tell them that as time went by, your very anatomy was becoming more human than alien. But the government was convinced by the military reports that they needed more invasive procedures. They wanted to find out what made you tick, so to speak. That meant you wouldn’t survive their procedures.”
“The following day after the order came down was a Saturday. On Monday morning, when I returned to work, you and your father were gone. That’s when I was forced to retire and I moved down here to be near my family. I hadn’t heard from your father since. He must have moved to Kensville because he knew I was close, or, at least, close enough if he needed something. But he never contacted me. The military has been searching for the both of you since that day. They even wiretap my phone a few months every year. And I see the government vehicles drive by my home every so often. They’re keeping tabs. Your father must have known, or at least suspected.”
“So you’re saying that it was the government that killed my father? Those men who came after him and blew up my house? You’re saying they did that?” It was the first thing Jonah had said in a while, and he was hoarse from getting sick.
“Let me be clear about this,” Athena said, standing up. “As far as I can see, I’m not sure who in the government may or may not still know about the project, Jonah. It’s been five years since the project closed. And only those who needed to be told were involved. What I do think is that some portion of the military, probably very covert, will try and locate you till the end of time. They see you as a threat, Jonah. They want you back and under their control. I’m sorry to be blunt, but you need to understand the situation.”
