by Tanya Allan
“Hell lady, I’m a Marine, so I know I’m super-human too,” he said, and she laughed.
It was the first time he had heard her laugh, and his soul stopped and made him take notice. She managed to compress the emotions of joy and humour with that of love and tenderness, and produce a sound that exuded pure happiness. Red fell in love with her at that moment. With tears in his eyes, he stood and looked at her in astonishment.
They stood for a long moment, both aware of something strange that was happening.
She moved first, so the spell was broken. He shook his head as if that would help. He suddenly felt he should go away from this place, so he looked questioningly at her.
“Red, we aren’t alone,” she said, with an edge of caution in her voice. She wasn’t afraid, so she wasn’t meaning him to be, it was a simple statement of fact.
He looked about, but could see nothing.
She smiled.
“You won’t see them unless they want you to.”
“Why don’t you….”
“I don’t want them to know I can use telepathy. Not with you anyway.”
“Do they know you?”
“They know of me, I haven’t met any of these. The ship I was on was a survey vessel, a scout, if you like. These are colonists from the mother ship.”
“Where the hell are they?”
“Watching us. One, the leader is very confused, and is attempting to communicate with the others, but they’re out of range.”
“Oh, so they have limitations then?”
“Sure, in this case it’s a couple of million miles.”
“No shit?”
“No shit.”
“So, what’s happening?”
“They’ve tried to persuade us to go away, and because that hasn’t worked they has deducted that I am ‘the one’.”
“The one?”
“The one planted to become the emissary.”
“No shit?”
“No shit.”
“And what happens when they find out you ain’t?”
She turned and gave him a look.
“You are!” he said, with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He was going to lose her.
“No, you won’t,” she said.
“Hey, you peeked,” he said.
“Just a wee one,” she said with a smile.
“So what do we do?” he asked.
“Nothing, just leave your sidearm in the holster. I can protect you, just trust me.”
He did.
“I got a feeling I should leave, but it sorta went away. How come they can’t ‘persuade’ me to leave?”
“Because I have extended my protection over you, so stick close.”
She didn’t have to tell him twice, so he took a step closer to her. Their eyes were only inches apart.
“That you don’t have to tell me twice,” he said, and grinned.
“Give me a little room to move,” she asked, so he reluctantly moved back.
“So where are they?”
“Beneath us,” she said.
“Huh?”
“They live underground, deep underground.”
“I thought you said they were watching?”
“They are, but not with their eyes. At the moment, they’re panicking, because they’ve never come across humans they can’t manipulate. Our minds are closed, so there’s much consternation.”
“How many are there?”
“Three, maybe four thousand.”
“No shit?”
“No shit. And this is only one of at least fifty colonies.
“Fifty? Each with a few thousand?”
“Some are well established, and have upwards of fifty thousand.”
Red was silent.
“I thought I knew the desert.”
“Yeah, well ain’t that a thing?” she said, and he grinned at her.
“How come I’m not scared?” he asked, frowning.
“I’m suppressing that for you.”
“Is that good?”
“Do you want to be scared?”
“I don’t know; I reckon it keeps me on my toes, maybe a little.”
Suddenly he felt terror, so he looked at her, appealing to her better nature, so then the terror was gone, just as quick.
“Okay, no fear is fine,” he said, and she smiled at him.
“Don’t you feel fear?” he asked.
She tilted her head slightly to one side, frowning slightly.
“I used to, but then I realised what I was capable of. Believe me, you do not want to piss me off,” she said. She had deliberately been vague about her Russian episode.
Red believed her, content to leave her in control.
Deep below them, the leader of the colony was in conference with his subordinates.
The colony was a new one, so the excavations had only just been completed. They had only received their full compliment of colonists a couple of weeks before, so everything was in relative chaos as they struggle to get settled. For a surface dweller, their conditions would appear confined and very restricted. However, these beings had never been outside a space ship for three or four generations.
The space allotted to each individual was luxurious by their standards. Earth was considered a challenge and a blessing.
The gravity, atmosphere and general conditions were within acceptable parameters. However, the indigenous superior life form, humans, had been a thorn in their side ever since the planet was first discovered all those years ago. Initially thought to be too primitive to be of any real threat, humans soon proved themselves to be excessively rapid developers. Considering the very short space of time since their emergence from the trees, this curious and aggressive biped showed remarkable promise for one so young.
Early attempts to nurture specially selected individuals resulted in mass hysteria, and many were put to death by their own kind for simply being different. Even those who had never been in contact with the ‘newcomers’ were destroyed on mere suspicion of being involved in what they called ‘witchery’.
Rules were set in place to keep the humans as ignorant as possible, but this status quo was threatened by three factors.
The first was the rapid population growth, leaving scant room for the colonies. Colonies were being discovered every week, and enormous efforts had to be made to restrict the spread of knowledge, and to contain the problems. The second was the amazing advances in technological and scientific fields. It would not be long before the humans had the ability to locate and eradicate the colonies, as if they were termite nests.
The last was their incredible aggressive and warlike nature. Their initial reaction to any problem was to attempt to destroy it first, and then solve it, if there was any problem left.
Those few occasions when the weapons were brought to bear on the colonists, proved that mental power was fine, but once a trigger is pulled, a hole is a hole, and death is final.
Every member of the Earth colonies was aware of the story of the supposed emissary. They’d been told that a human sacrificed itself for the life of a young alien, and suffered some form of seizure just after bringing the youngster to safety.
In an unprecedented act, the Captain of the survey scout ship had authorised his medical technicians to try to save the life of this human, and when they failed, they created a clone.
In order to somehow manipulate events for the bringing together of the two races in peace, this clone was allowed to develop mental powers greater than its fellow humans. However, it was also told that this human developed such powers to be stronger even than those who had created it.
Some believed this to be a story told to juveniles at sleep time, but many refused to believe it was true.
The elders of the colony discovered that truth has a way of smacking one in the face when one least expects it.
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The leader, an old being called Phollz, heard the discussion, and finally ended it.
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There was silence.
Phollz sent a message to the strange human, whom none of them could read.
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11.
“Red. Contact!” Michelle said, closing her eyes.
It was strange hearing them again. To start with, they had been all she had known, but then she had returned home, and become used to human minds.
<> she thought, slowly and in a mental whisper.
A mixture of horror, disbelief and relief met her mind like a tidal wave, so she realised that she had broadcast to the whole colony. She concentrated and directed her mental beam only to the one who had initiated the exchange.
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Michelle relaxed, and waited for the response.
It was a long time coming.
Phollz was grateful that the human was able to communicate directly, keeping the rest of the colony in ignorance of the discussion. Her words made logical and rational sense, but the people were just not yet at a stage to step into the open. Fear worked both ways.
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Phollz was now very worried, for the human had just penetrated the strongest mind shield in the colony.
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You must come to an agreement amongst all your earth colonies, and let me know when it is reached. I will arrange a meeting with the representatives of the global community, and then we hope and pray.>>
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Michelle felt faintly silly trying to explain basic theology to an alien, but she was surprised at the reply.
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Michelle smiled.
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The communication ceased, and she sensed great movement.
“Okay, Red. They’re coming up. Just keep that gun strapped down tight. Understand, Marine?”
Red grinned.
“Aye aye, Ma’am,” he said.
They sat and waited, as the sun started to dip towards the western horizon.
Red looked at Michelle and raised an eyebrow.
“They’ve a long way to come, and they aren’t exactly overwhelmed with the possibility of a whole change to their way of life. Besides, they don’t trust us,” she paused, looking round.
“If it comes to that, I don’t trust us either.”
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“Red, take the binoculars to that ridge and tell me what you see.”
Red jogged up to the ridge.
“Dust, looks like vehicles.”
“Bastards. How many?”
“Difficult to tell. Ten, maybe more.”
“They’re tracking us. Come back, quick.”
Red jogged back down, so they checked through their entire kit. Nothing.
“The cell phones,” she said. Hers was fine, but his had a small homing device inside the casing. She remembered the pilot handing it to him, with the words, “Just don’t lose this Sergeant, it could mean your life.”
She extracted the small electronic device and turned it over.
“Which animal is the fastest in this desert?”
“Long or short distance?”
“Long.”
“Either the coyote or fox. The fox is more clever and will keep going over a wider area.”
“Okay, shut up for a minute,” she said, and went and sat on a rock, closing her eyes.
Red sat and watched her, and then he shook his head, as this girl had just turned everything upside down for him.
He heard a fain noise to the left. He looked up and saw a fox trotting down the steep escarpment.
He looked at Michelle, as her face was showing signs of concentration and strain.
The fox continued, saw him and stopped. He daren’t even breathe.
The fox sniffed the air, but gradually and cautiously approached, and then to his utter amazement sat at her feet like a dog.
She opened her eyes and held the device out. The fox took it in its mouth, very carefully, and trotted off again.
Red was about to speak, but she put up her hand and stopped him.
Then she relaxed.
“Okay, what?” she said.
He shook his head.
“Nothing. I thought I was the Indian here?”
She smiled.
“The good little fox is going to run until it reaches the railroad fifteen miles east of here. Then it will follow the tracks until it finds a train at a stop and put the device in the train. That should give our friends something to play with.”
Red took out the map. He reasoned that if they were plotted, they made good time to this point, had a short thirty-minute rest, and then followed the contours
to the railway line, and then continued east. It was logical.
“Now what?”
“We see if they take the bait.”
The sounds of an approaching rotor blade changed their minds, but before they could move, Michelle simply entered the minds of the crew, and turned them east to follow the fox. She disabled the cameras just before they came into sight, and both men in the helicopter would swear they saw two people running east along the escarpment.
“Why the double cross?”
“Belt and braces. Use me to locate the quarry, and then seize the evidence. The Military want our alien friends and their technology all for themselves.”
Red felt the tug. He was a Marine, but he could see the potential for disaster, and he looked into those blue eyes. No mental coercion was required, so Michelle realised that she had an ally.
The convoy turned east, and Michelle contacted the aliens again.
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Minutes passed, and Michelle sensed Red stiffen. She glanced towards the cliff, where, from a shadow, three figures appeared.
They looked very familiar, yet she was aware that they were not the ones she knew.
“Holy shit!”
“Shh.”
Michelle stood and approached the small group.
She went onto her knees, holding both palms up in a gesture of friendship and greeting.
The aliens were impressed. The tall female was so much bigger than they, but by reducing her height and using a recognised greeting, they immediately felt better.
They mirrored her movements, and soon Red thought he was watching a silent movie with no subtitles.
The sun dipped further and the shadows grew longer and longer. The sky turned red and the light failed, but still the four figures were there, in eerie silence.
Finally, they repeated the hand gestures again, and one reached out and shook Michelle’s hand. It also gave her something. The three figures then melted into the wall of the cliff.
“Okay, home James.”
“We’re done?”
“Yup. How far civilisation?”
“You mean a base, or any civilisation?”
