“It is Agent Tussive…as far as we can tell,” the agent said.
Art was able to recognize Tussive despite the swollen features of his face. He was on a counterintelligence assignment but was not supposed to be in Aldevi. Art became curious about how he had ended up there, “Who is the other?”
“Esna Edfu…a government official who was suspected of feeding Tussive information,” the agent replied.
“Regressing back to the days of trial by mob! Murderous animals,” Ovtave said.
Art looked around as SINSTER agents were scurrying about collecting and exchanging information. He wondered how many spies were among them. Was it a leak that led to Tussive’s death? Like the shapeshifters that stole the identity of Salvana, who’s fate they had yet to uncover. How many more of the Tavoy shapeshifters had infiltrated and accessed top secret information? This he would have to remedy, but first, he needed to navigate through the immediate crisis. He turned to Ovtave and said angrily, “That is an act of war. It looks like the nation of Aldevi has decided that it wants to side with the Kasadu. I need to talk to the president!”
Chapter 32
“I’m sorry,” Gunner said attempting to console Astrid as he could see the shock on her face. They were standing together watching the attack on her home planet as the transports escaped into celerity, “we can turn back if you want.”
The sound of his voice pulled her out of a state of deep thought. For the first time since leaving she looked away from the observation window and turned to him, “We are a powerful nation. We have a powerful military. I believe in them. My orders were to get you and everyone else back to Earth. That is what I must do.” She placed her hand on his shoulder in a rare sign of public affection. Up until this moment, the true depth of their relationship had been a secret…or so they hoped. It seemed that Astrid no longer cared about secrecy. She hugged him and held tightly for a minute not wanting to let go. Astrid looked over and the two exchanged a brief kiss.
“Is there any way to get any kind of update on what is going on?” Gunner asked.
“No. In celerity I can only communicate with the transports traveling with us. We would need to pull out of it and send a message, then wait for a response. It would take too long. We don’t know how much time we have before the same thing happens to your planet.”
In their brief time together, he had not seen her look so concerned. “So, what is your plan?” Gunner asked.
“I must return as soon as you are safely back. I will help defend my people, rebuild, help in any way that I can in any way that my nation needs me,” she said, then looked away.
Gunner didn’t like the response, but as a man of the military, he knew the answer to the question before he had even asked it. “That is what any soldier would say,” he replied looking into her eyes.
Their hands slid apart as Astrid walked away to resume her duties. Gunner slowly walked into the galley and sat by himself looking out of the transparent panels at the fading planet. He couldn’t get used to how her red-green eyes seemed to collect all the surrounding light and radiate, casting it back at him. It was somewhat awkward, but Gunner couldn’t stop looking at them. He thought of her as the most beautiful female of any race of beings that he had ever seen. During their time of separation, while she fulfilled her obligations as the Commander of the Tuega, he continually attempted to convince himself that any potential relationship with her could only be temporary.
The time would come when they would separate. He wasn’t a resident of Viennin and she was not of the United States. There certainly was no protocol of a path to citizenship for someone from another world. The US immigration systems were already a mess especially at the southern border with Mexico which had become a stifling tidal wave of illegals with both good and bad intentions pouring into the country. Coached by lawyers and various non-profits to repeat the request of needing asylum had been a perversion of US policy. The system had been so overwhelmed that many would pass through and disappear into the country never to be seen again unless they were caught after committing a crime. Most upsetting to Gunner was how they managed to get free education, healthcare, and housing despite having no proof of citizenship while military veterans were homeless and slept on the streets. It was the most asinine and dangerous of all the American policies, but no one in Washington seemed to want to fix it as it was used as a political football to be taken up at election time. American sovereignty eroded one illegal at a time. For one side it was the promise to fix the problem that stirred their voters, for the other it was the promise of the illegals becoming new and reliable voters for them in the future, possibly saving their party and ensuring the power that they had sold their souls to maintain.
What kind of policy could there be for someone like Astrid or anyone from Econ? It was doubtful that multitudes would want to relocate to Earth from Econ. Perhaps it would turn out to be an outmigration issue with a segment of Earth’s population wanting to take up residence on Econ. He became curious about Econ’s policies.
A thought came across his mind that made him chuckle a little, I’m in a spaceship for goodness sake. As soon as we land, we’ll all end up in Area 51. At least then we will finally know the truth. The truth was that he was a fool. Foolish to let the fantasy of a possible future with Astrid become more than what it was. How could he have let himself get emotionally connected? Was he willing to leave Earth and ‘visit’ every now and then? The answer was obviously, yes. Would she even entertain the idea of leaving Econ? Traveling back and forth was a bit more complicated than boarding a plane and flying halfway across the planet. While the transports were far superior in comfort allowing them to travel nearly three-hundred million miles to Earth from the other side of the universe the trip was still longer than he liked. If they could ever figure out how to effectively and accurately turn while traveling up to three times the speed of light without having to travel to a point, stop, redirect on a new course and then reenter celerity, as they called it, again and again reaching Earth would be tremendously quicker. Regardless, their relationship would become one-sided. The transports were government property. There were no commercial transports between Earth and Econ…which might be a new and exciting business venture to consider for someone who had the kind of capital that would require. But, in the meantime, he would have to sit around on Earth waiting for his ‘girlfriend’ to travel from across the universe to pick him up for their date. That was not exactly what he had in mind. She did convey her feelings to him, but things were a bit more complicated now that the war had actually begun. Econ needed her, and Earth needed him. Until such a time as the war ended and they both had somehow survived, whatever hours remained on this return voyage would more than likely conclude with what would be a final farewell. He sat back and looked out of the large window at the endless universe.
“I think he is either deep in like or possibly something even deeper than that,” Logan said to Ayla as he watched Gunner enter the galley and sit by himself.
“Is that bad or wrong?” she asked looking at him with a raised brow.
“No. I will be quite happy for him if it works out. He was happily married when he joined the Navy. When he deployed for the first time, he returned to port and found that only his parents were there to greet him. Selena, his wife at the time, was nowhere to be found. He recalled the day when she stopped responding to his letters but tried to write it off…justifying it for one reason or another. When he walked down the gangway and didn’t see her, he called their home phone. She never answered. He tried over and over again and never a reply.
“His dad drove him home to find all of his stuff tossed out on the front lawn. It had been there for some time as the weather had ruined some of the keepsakes. Things he valued, stuff from his childhood. It was all in the front yard like it was useless garbage. His key no longer worked in the lock on the front door. After knocking, a burly guy answered. It was his wife’s new thing or fling or whatever you call a person like that.
She stood behind him and told Gunner that she had filed for a divorce and that she was with…whatever the loser’s name was. Well, it was Gunner’s house, it was in his name. He grabbed the guy and pulled him outside of the house and told him to leave. When the guy refused Gunner lost his cool for a few minutes and proceeded to knock almost all the loser’s front teeth out of his mouth. The guy’s face wasn’t so pretty anymore. He needed some plastic surgery after that…I’m sure. He kicked her out of the house, moved his stuff back in, tossed hers out.
“He was arrested for assault and nearly kicked out of the military. When all was said and done, he lost the house anyway. The home that he was paying the note on was no longer his…well, he was forced to sell it. Needless to say, after that, he has been extremely cautious with relationships. He won’t admit it, but he is afraid of it happening again.
“And now, how does this situation work out? It’s not a hundred- or thousand-mile separation here. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of miles and space and all of it. Not like you can just fire up the Jeep and pick her up,” Logan said.
A week had passed since leaving Econ. The return trip seemed to be much quicker. They could feel the transport slowing down and he assumed, if he remembered correctly, that larger craft needed to exit celerity in stages. There was no direct line they could take moving at the ridiculous speed they were traveling. He looked to his right and saw Sonia and Joseph talking. The other kids had somehow managed to settle down and were no longer able to fight off the need to sleep. Brother and sister rested their heads on the seats and were curled up nearly in fetal positions.
“Who is his father? Do you wonder about that? Did they use the same DNA in all of them? Do they all have different donors? Do they know how to construct DNA completely artificially? Don’t you wonder about that? What would a DNA test look like for them? They don’t look alike, but why do they have those incredible abilities?”
“Actually, they do have a common feature. You’ve seen the gold flakes in Joseph’s iris…really neat. But, if you look closely, they all have something similar. Their flakes or whatever are very small, but they are there,” Logan noted.
“Strange,” Ayla replied.
“Regardless, all I can say is that they positively identified the link between Sonia and Joseph. They didn’t get into any specifics. Only confirming that she was his mother. I asked if there was anything in their DNA that told them the origins of their abilities. All I was told is that it was ‘complicated’ and that they were working on it.”
“Wouldn’t it be weird if one day this person or thing shows up looking for him. That would be weird. I just can’t help but wonder who or what it is and what it is like. What kind of abilities it has, temperament, intellect, and physical features? It is very intriguing,” Ayla said.
“Yes, I guess, if he wants, we can try to pursue that after the war. If this person or thing works with the Tisht, it can’t be good. I don’t know. I am sure we will develop some kind of communication with the people of Viennin. Let’s just hope that we survive long enough to find out.”
“Are you afraid?” she asked.
“Of the war?” he asked seeking to confirm the target of her inquiry.
“Yes,” Ayla replied.
The question was one he didn’t want to answer truthfully. Should he be honest and convey his fears, or should he side with the confidence he had in the US and its allies of finding a way? The world survived World War II, which cost millions of lives and strained the resources of the nations. This wasn’t a force with technology and capabilities that would simply require an improvement here and there to close the gap. The advancements could not be replicated in a matter of weeks or months if not years. The Alliance was capable and would send help their way as long as the loons in the government and leadership didn’t screw it up. He decided the truth was better, “Yes, I am. In many ways for many reasons. There is so much unknown. How do we convince the US government that we aren’t a bunch of insane, doped up, nutjobs and that we really did travel to Earth’s sister planet? Oh, and it happens to be on a parallel orbit, has been there all this time, and that they have the ability to jamb the signals and frequencies…make the planet and its three moons invisible to us despite the Hubble telescope and everything else we have floating through space. If we can somehow get past that without ending up in a facility until such a time as the war is actually upon us, then yes, I would feel better about things.
“We have seen that we now undoubtedly have the most corrupt people empowered throughout our government than at any point in our history. This may be reaching but our best chance is the President. He seems to be one of the few real people in D.C. The majority of them are a bunch of cons. I trust him. I have met him before. It’s everyone else I don’t trust.
“The opposition party will refuse to cooperate and will do everything to score a political victory to destroy him because it is all that they care about. When they realize that the threat isn’t a hoax, they will have no choice but to play it safe and participate. If we lose this war, it will have as much to do with pathetic politicians as a lack of advanced weaponry. We will be underprepared and unable to do anything about it,” Logan said.
“We have the beok. What about that?” Ayla asked.
“Come on, they will take it and we will never see it again. They probably won’t even let us explain what it does and why it is important to the truth. They will just right us off as crazy and keep the technology for themselves.”
“You really don’t trust the American government?” Ayla asked.
“I don’t know about New Zealand. We are a long way from our founding. It’s not about the Constitution, what is best for the country, or serving the people anymore. It’s all about power and winning. It’s the ones who turn into Santa Clause, promising and pandering…begging for power every election creating a dependency on government so that you have to vote a certain party in power to the detriment of the people who actually work and pay taxes and contribute.
“Sorry, I’m getting a little off-track. As to the problem at hand, if we land in some obscure location in the middle of the desert…somewhere where our presence is mere speculation or is unable to be validated by little more than an unstable, distant, low-quality video of a light in the sky taken from a cell phone to end up on some silly television show narrated by the ramblings of people who don’t know what the heck they are talking about, then yes we will be able to do little.” His face lit up and he looked at Ayla, “Unless…” He stood and called out to Gunner who was still staring into space. He turned and looked at him, “Do you think we can talk to Astrid?”
They stood and started down the hallway that led to the bridge. They were detected by armed guards long before they had reached the doors. The Viennin military guards seemed to be excessively tall and burly. Neither man wanted to fight with them. It was good that they came to know and were fond of Gunner. Because of this, he was the one who spoke, “Sir, we need to speak to the Commander if it is permissible.” One guard gave an odd look as if giving consideration to the timing of such a distraction. After a second, the guard turned and entered the bridge to notify his Commander of the request. Within a few minutes, the metal doors slid open and she walked out. Astrid gestured to a room on her left. They all entered as the doors closed behind them.
“Yes?” she asked with a hint of impatience.
“We apologize for interrupting. And we greatly appreciate you bringing us back, despite the circumstances. If you don’t mind me asking, what are your plans? What do you intend to do with us?” Logan asked.
A brow raised as she considered his question and wondered if it was advisable to discuss the matter with him. They would know very soon regardless, “My instructions are to dock at a certain location. We will board the Bru. From there it will take about eight minutes to get back to the dead zone…that is one of many places where we can approach and enter the Earth’s atmosphere undetected. We will basically do the opposite of y
our extraction really.”
“We enter invisible, travel underwater in the Gulf of Mexico, and then are taken to the same place where Honoré picked us up? Then you disappear and head home?” Logan asked.
“Yes. Those are my orders,” she replied.
“As much respect as I have for your country in the little time that I have spent with you all, I don’t think that is a good idea. They can bury this whole thing and write it off as a bunch of nonsense while they chalk us up as insane and tear up the computer and the hologram book thing Art gave us. We need to make a spectacle of this. This can’t be some obscure, remote event that can be dismissed or written off. We need them to listen and we need them to do it now. We can’t afford a two-year investigation,” Logan said in a firm but respectful tone.
“Beok. He called it a beok. You could send the world into a panic,” Ayla said.
“Better now than later when we are under attack. It’s time the world knew the truth of what is out there. No more NASA secrets. No more nonsense,” Gunner said in agreement, “so, what are you thinking?”
“How many of the smaller spaceships like the one you brought us up in do you have?” Logan asked.
“Bru? About ten per transport,” Astrid answered.
“You should have thirty of those? And you can completely jam any surveillance…any radar?” Logan asked.
“We would be nearly invisible. If for some reason we launched all of them, there would be a point when the sound of thirty incoming spacecraft would be difficult to mask,” she replied.
Universal Code Page 62
