“Thank you,” she said to Marcus. “I feel much better.”
Marcus nodded and sat for a few minutes to catch his breath. He went off to explore the house for a few minutes and returned to the living room in new clothing. The Indian attire looked odd on him, but it was still a step up from his soggy Navy uniform.
“I think we’ll be all right here for the time being,” he said to Abhaya. She was obviously in no condition to move even if he had wanted to. “And I think I can help you with your agoraphobia.”
Abhaya lifted her head off the couch and shot an angry look at Marcus. “You certainly have some nerve!” she said furiously. “You think you can walk into my life and instantly cure me. Do you want to be the strong man who saves the day like in your Hollywood movies?”
Marcus could not help but smile. She had calmed down enough to be angry, which he took to be a good sign. “I didn’t mean I could cure your problem,” he said with a broad grin. He dug into the pocket of his newly acquired pants and pulled out a small bottle. “I found some Valium in the medicine cabinet. It should help clam your nerves.”
“Oh,” she responded in embarrassment. She took the bottle from Marcus and quickly swallowed two of the pills. “Thank you.”
Marcus nodded his head and made his way to the kitchen to scrounge for food. As he walked away, Abhaya could not help but feel that there was something familiar about the stranger.
Abhaya had been living in her new home in Mumbai for almost a year. She still felt uncomfortable in the city. She tried to tell herself that it was just homesickness, but it seemed like more than that.
She had been reluctant to move so far away from her family in the first place. Her husband had been sent to oversee the creation of a new branch of his company just a few months after they had been married. She had pretended to be excited about the move, but her husband had been able to tell that she was unhappy. He promised her that they would move back to Chennai after the branch got on its feet. It would be at most three years. As it turned out though, she would return to Chennai much sooner than that.
“I do not know how you can stand to sit inside all day while I am at work,” her husband said one Saturday afternoon. “It is such a beautiful city. You should go out and explore it.”
“I have plenty of things to do. The house is not going to take care of itself. Besides, I hate to go out by myself,” Abahya responded.
“Then make some friends.”
“I already have friends back home.”
Abhaya’s husband rolled his eyes. She was a tenacious woman, especially when she was angry. It was one of the reasons he had fallen in love with her. “Then come out with me right now. There is that lovely park three blocks away. We can get some fresh air.”
Abhaya looked at him as if he was crazy. “Have you not been watching the news? The Muslims—”
“The Muslims are not rioting anywhere near here. Besides, the violence does not start up until nightfall. Now stop making excuses. I insist that you get out of this house if only for a few hours.”
Abhaya was still not eager to leave the house. The interreligious turmoil was the main reason she had feared moving to Mumbai. The most serious clashes between the Muslims and the Hindus of the city had occurred years before in the early 1990’s, but the violence flared up regularly. It was not something she was used to yet. Her hometown of Chennai, which was on India’s eastern coast, did not have such a densely populated Muslim community. She knew her husband was right though. They were far from the Muslim areas of the city where the violence had been centered for the last few nights.
Reluctantly she agreed and set out with her husband to the park. It was a very nice day, and it was much cooler than it had been the previous week. She was unimpressed by the park but enjoyed her husband’s company nonetheless. Although the park did not have much to see they spent several hours there. As the sun began to set, Abhaya insisted that they head back to their house. They were approaching the park’s exit when the violence began.
They walked for a block and did their best to ignore the screaming and yelling. This proved to be difficult as it quickly became clear that the noise was coming closer to them. The sound of a bottle crashing came from farther down the street.
“What are they doing so far out?” Abhaya asked her husband.
“I do not know,” he replied nervously.
Abhaya became even more scared as she looked at her husband. While he was normally a pillar of confidence, his face showed uneasiness.
In the intersection forty yards ahead of them the cause of the violent noises emerged. Two groups of young men collided in the center of the street. A large group of Muslims from the right ran straight at a smaller group of Hindus. Both sides fought with clubs, bottles and other makeshift weapons. The clash was short-lived. The Hindu youths retreated leaving one of their own bleeding in the street. The Muslims turned down the street and noticed Abhaya and her husband.
“Run!” her husband demanded.
Abahya ran back in the opposite direction. Her husband kept pace with her although she knew he was capable of running much faster. She did not dare to look back, but she knew the gang was gaining on them.
“Go back into the park!” her husband yelled at her. “Hide in the shrubs at the closest part of the pond!”
“But—” Abhaya began.
“Go! I will meet you there,” he commanded. He stopped in his tracks and turned to face the Muslim youths.
Abhaya hesitated but decided to obey her husband’s order. She was out of breath by the time she reached the shrubs. The two foot tall bushes surrounded a small dirt area near the pond. She pressed herself flat on her stomach inside the small shrub enclosure. She listened to the sounds of the riot but did not dare to peak up over her makeshift barrier. Minutes ticked by, but she continued to lay perfectly still and pray that her husband would soon join her. She tried to ignore the truth of the matter. Deep down she knew he would never arrive.
Abhaya stayed in the dirt for ten hours. As dawn began to break the noises subsided. It took her a while to get to her feet given the cramps in her legs. As she finally stood she felt light-headed from the lack of food or water. She told herself she was heading out to search for her husband, but she knew she was heading out to search for his corpse.
Julie zipped up the jacket she had been given and pressed her arms against her body. Given the alternative she was happy to be in the seaplane. Being cold beat being terrified any day of the week.
“Told you it would get cold,” said the pilot who was sitting next to her.
The pilot was the only other person on the plane. The Australian soldiers had seen her to the rendezvous point before departing to fight the good fight. The trip in the old propeller plane seemed to take forever. Julie had no anxiety about flying. In fact she usually enjoyed it. However, the plane was skimming over the water at only about fifty feet. The pilot had said it was to avoid the alien fighter ships. The aliens were more concerned with the Australian and New Zealand Air Forces, but they were not exactly picky about their targets either.
Julie nodded her head politely at the pilot’s attempt at casual conversation. She could hardly blame him. She did not have anything new to say either. “How much longer?” she asked.
“About five more minutes,” he replied.
Auckland Island seemed to emerge into view all at once. Given the low altitude at which they were flying, Julie did not get to see much of it from the air. The pilot landed the seaplane fairly far from the coast. He then started to maneuver on the ocean towards land.
“What are you doing?” Julie asked.
“I’m going to beach her,” the pilot responded simply.
“Isn’t that dangerous? Won’t it damage the plane?”
“Yeah, this was a one way trip for me too. Besides, it beats the alternative. I wouldn’t recommend a swim through that water.”
Julie was jostled only slightly as the seaplane scraped onto land. She was so eager
to stretch her legs after the long flight that she exited the plane without assistance. Two New Zealand soldiers came to greet her and escort her to her final destination. It was a polite gesture, but it was completely unnecessary. Julie could see the small group of tents that had been pitched only a hundred yards inland.
“Ms. Kemmer?” one of the soldiers at the camp asked. He continued after she nodded her head. “I’m Captain Clark. If you’ll follow me I’ll show you to the alien.”
So much for small talk, she thought to herself. She walked alongside Clark towards the tent in the center of the formation. “How did you capture it? I heard they don’t surrender.”
“American research scientists from the South Pole captured it, if you can believe that. They found it in the snow half dead. One of the scientists is still here. You’ll be meeting him shortly.”
Sure enough, Shawn Humphrey was the first thing she saw as she followed Clark into the tent. Even given the stress of the situation, her first thought was of how attractive the man was. He nodded politely as she stared at him. Suddenly, and uncharacteristically, she felt very subconscious about her disfigurement. She moved her hand up to the side of her face, but she moved it away just as quickly as she realized how awkward she looked.
“This is Shawn Humphrey of the United States Geological Survey. Mr. Humphrey, this is Ms. Julie Kemmer of the University of New South Wales. And this…” Clark paused and motioned for Shawn to step out of the way. “Is obviously the alien.”
Julie noticed Mervny for the first time as Shawn sidestepped out of the way. Having never seen one of the aliens before she was quite startled by its appearance. She had expected to find a terrifying monster chained to the wall with a half dozen soldiers standing guard. Instead she saw a small bug hunched awkwardly in a chair that clearly was not designed for it. It wore a children’s sized winter coat that looked bulky on the creature. Evidently the coat was not enough though as it was clutching a blanket around itself with its forearms.
Julie couldn’t help but giggle at the creature. “Doesn’t look like much once you see it up close.”
Shawn was not amused. “Yeah well, one of his buddies shot up the plane I came in on and murdered my friend. Looks can be deceiving.”
Julie flushed red at the thought that she had offended the attractive man. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Shawn accepted her condolences by means of a slight nod of his head. He knew that she was not the one he was mad at.
“Which is why you’re here, Ms. Kemmer,” Clark interjected, eager to get things moving. “You’re supposed to be some sort of linguistics savant. How long will it take you to learn its language? Time is of the essence.”
Julie laughed uncomfortably at the sudden pressure being placed on her shoulders. “It’s not quite that easy.”
“Its language sounds very similar to our own. Or at least it makes the same types of noises. It shouldn’t take long for you to memorize its basic vocabulary,” Clark responded.
“If that was the only problem then it wouldn’t take long at all. All the languages I’ve learned had already been translated into English by someone else. This is something completely new. There’s no telling what kind of complications there will be. There are many differences between different cultures here on Earth. An alien will be even worse,” she explained. She could tell by the look on his face that Clark was having difficulty understanding her. She gestured towards one of the empty chairs. “Suppose I pointed like this and said a pretend alien word… muschlob. Now what does muschlob mean?”
“Chair,” Clark said confidently.
“Ah,” Shawn spoke up, understanding what Julie was getting at. “But how do you know muschlob doesn’t mean grey or metal. With a human you’d naturally assume it’s referring to the object. This little guy might care more about its color or its composition.”
“Or it might not be talking about the chair at all,” Julie said as if she was lecturing her class. “Pointing for humans is an attempt to draw attention to something. The alien pointing and turning its head might not have anything to do with the object. It could be an alien mannerism that means… ‘surrender’ or ‘I’m hungry’ or a thousand other things.”
Captain Clark did not seem happy with what he was being told. “I think I understand, and I really don’t want to put this huge burden on your shoulders…” he paused as he debated how much pressure to put on her. “People are dying out there. We need to figure out how to talk to these things.”
Julie let out a deep sigh. “I know. I’ll get started right away, and I’ll let you know immediately if I’m at all successful.”
Clark nodded his appreciation and left the tent. Shawn stayed standing where he was.
“You’re not leaving?” Julie asked. She did her best to mask the happiness in her voice at the idea.
“Nah. For some reason there’s not a lot of outbound flights from this deserted island to the South Pole right now. I might as well give you a hand. Besides, I’ve grown attached to this little guy.”
“I think I can use all the help I can get. To be honest I was surprised to see it just sitting here without any handcuffs or armed guards or anything. Has it always been this docile?”
“Yeah he… or she has been no trouble at all. I thought it was trying to attack me once but…” Shawn trailed off as he thought back to the horror aboard the Hercules. The creature had tapped him lightly on the shoulder. In the heat of the moment he had thought it was a threat, but not now. “The more I think about it, the more I think it might have been trying to help out.”
“With your friend on the plane?” Julie reluctantly asked. She was unsure of whether or not she should bring the incident up.
Shawn nodded his head sadly. An awkward silence ensued.
“Well,” Julie said as she walked over and looked down at the alien. “I guess I’ll get started. Julie,” she said, pointing at herself. “Jjjuuullliiieee.”
Mervny had been watching the assembled primates dispassionately. While they had motioned at him occasionally, they did not seem to be trying to communicate with him. As such he had been content to sit patiently. Now though the primate with the pronounced mammary glands was leaning down and looking right at him. He knew from the scuttlebutt that this was a female primate. He began to wonder if primate females were treated as equals within their society. He knew that it was certainly a possibility. Everything he had observed so far indicated that the primates had a lot in common with his own species. After a moment he realized that the primate female was repeating the same word over and over again.
Mervny let go of the blanket he was clutching and pointed at his abdomen with his right forearm. “Mervny,” he mimicked. “Mmmeeerrrvvvnnnyyy.”
Shawn pressed against Karen as soon as she opened the door. He pushed her back against the wall and furiously began to unbutton her shirt.
“Whoa!” Karen said, although she made no attempt to stop him. “Nice to see you too.”
He threw his hand behind her head and brought her forward for a passionate kiss. He ended by tugging softly on her bottom lip with his teeth before letting out an excited growl. “I can’t believe I get you all to myself for an entire week,” he said. He reached down and unbuttoned her jeans. “No sneaking around,” he pulled down the zipper. “No time limits,” he slid her pants down her legs a few inches. “No worrying about getting caught by your asshole husband,” he started to run his hand down the length of her body.
Karen tilted her head back and took in several short breaths. She closed her eyes and moaned. “Yeah, it’s a real bitch with you two having the same work schedule.”
Shawn grinned mischievously and pulled her off of the wall. He turned her so that her back was facing him and pushed her quickly into the living room. When she reached the couch she turned and wiggled out of her panties while staring at Shawn with a sly smile. She slowly sat down on the couch and ran her tongue over her top lip.
Shawn’s belt made a snapping
noise as he tore it off of his khaki pants. He quickly dropped his drawers and pushed himself into her on the couch.
Within a short time he could feel her heart beating rapidly. He became even more excited as she started to take short little breaths. One sharp breath confused him enough that he stopped to look at her. At first he thought she might have finished early. As he looked in her eyes he realized that it had been a startled gasp. She was staring over his shoulder.
Shawn turned around and saw Barry Fuller standing a few feet behind him. Given the noise involved in the particularly passionate lovemaking session, neither Shawn nor Karen had heard him enter. Barry had an odd look on his face. It was not shock or anger, which would have been expected from a man in his situation. Instead he looked slightly puzzled.
“I forgot my passport,” Barry said emotionlessly.
Shawn pushed himself off of Karen and flopped onto the couch next to her. He grabbed a pillow and covered his shame. “It’s not what it looks like!” he said frantically. As the words left his mouth he realized how tremendously stupid he sounded.
Karen made no attempt to cover herself. Her initial look of shock melted off of her face. “It’s on your nightstand,” she said between deep breaths. She ran a hand over her face and down her chest to remove some of the accumulated sweat.
Barry limped out of the room and up the stairs without another word.
Shawn was momentarily puzzled by the lack of screaming and yelling. After a moment he leapt off the couch and began putting on his clothes. He had much more difficulty with this than he had taking them off. He was in the process of pulling down his white T-shirt when Barry emerged, passport in hand.
“This is certainly an unexpected development,” Barry said as if he was reading the evening news. “I’ve been trying to think of signs I might have missed. People always say they remember strange things after something like this presents itself. Honestly though, I can’t think of anything either of you has ever done that made me suspicious.”
The Unlikely Defenders Page 20
