This time, Timmy reached out with his index finger and touched both
dots. The glyph brightened and disappeared. Three seconds later, another
appeared: a single glyph with three dots side by side.
Pete reached out and touched the group of three dots with his index
finger. Nothing happened.
“Use your thumb!” Pete looked dead serious towards Timmy.
“Why?”
“I want to test whether it responds to just your index finger or if it cares
at all.”
“You’ve been in the tunnel too long. When was the last time you went
out and saw the sun?”
“Just do it!” Pete seemed frustrated by the waste of time.
Timmy reached out with his thumb and touched all three dots. The
glyph brightened and disappeared. Seconds later, four dots appeared.
“What do you think it’s doing?” Timmy took a step away from the orb
and walked around to the other side. As he did, the glyph moved and fol-
lowed him so that it was always facing him.
Pete ran over to the computer and typed furiously.
Timmy stepped toward the orb again and tapped all four dots in quick
succession. The glyph brightened and disappeared. The next glyph that
appeared was a horizontal line.
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“It’s teaching us to count!” Pete shouted from the computer.
“I already know how to count.”
Pete chuckled briefly. “No, I mean it’s teaching us how to read
their numbers.”
“I thought that was obvious already. Why else would I be pushing ever
increasing dots?”
Pete grumbled something that Timmy couldn’t hear.
Timmy touched the bar five times, but nothing happened. “Huh?”
“What?” Pete left the computer and walked over.
“I touched it five times. Nothing happened.”
Timmy tried tapping on the line five times. Again, nothing happened.
Timmy dragged his finger from the left side of the line to the right, and the
glyph brightened and disappeared.
Seconds later, a new glyph appeared.
“I imagine this is gonna be a while. Can you get me some breakfast?”
“It’s dinner time, actually.”
“I don’t care! Food and drink will be fine.” He reacted a bit harsher
than he really wanted, frustrated about not knowing how long he was going
to have to count.
Timmy walked over to his chair and sat down, watching the glyph
follow him to his seat. Staring at the glyph, he reached out, both relieved
that great progress was being made, and concerned about how long he
would sit there counting for the orb.
* * *
Standing outside the door, he closed his eyes. Feeling a kink in his neck, he
moved his head, around trying to work it free. Rolling his shoulders and
with his eyes still closed, he purposefully took several deep breaths. This
time, as he exhaled, he imagined all the stress and the horrors of work leav-
ing his body. He prepared himself for what he knew was about to happen.
His keys jingled as he inserted one of them into the lock of the door.
From inside, he could hear thumping in rapid progress, growing louder.
The door unlocked; he opened it and entered the room.
“Daddy!”
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Both of his little girls ran around a nearby corner of the dwelling and jumped onto him at the first opportunity.
“Oh, my angels, how are you today?”
“Did you make the monsters go away again today?” the younger
girl asked.
“He already told you they’re dead. Our daddy works in space now.”
“No, he doesn’t, he just—”
His wife Debra walked into the area and hugged the lot of them, kiss-
ing Grissom. “How was your day?”
“It was good.” He looked down at his kids. “Who’s hungry?” The aroma
of cooking was evident in the air.
“We already ate.” The girls let go of their father and slid down either
side of his body until their toes touched the cold tile floor.
Grissom frowned in disappointment and looked at Debra question-
ingly. She smiled, shrugged her shoulders and slowly walked to the dining
room. Grissom was quick to follow.
The table that could seat six was decorated with candles. Most were
heavily used, a couple nearly untouched. Two chairs sat side by side on the
other side of the table. The lights in the room were turned down low, and
the kids disappeared from the area.
“What are the kids doing?”
“I’ve been holding out from letting them watch that movie they have
been dying to see. They will be well occupied for the next one hundred and
twenty-two minutes, plus advertisements.” She slowly draped an arm over
his shoulder as she escorted him to his seat.
“How very cunning of you, wife,” he said, smiling as he sat down in
his chair.
“Oh, I have learned from the best.” Debra put down a glass of wine and
pulled out her chair.
“I don’t generally accept flattery, but—”
“I am talking about my mother!” She froze, cocking her head to the
side with big eyes, raised eyebrows and an expectant expression, hiding
a smile.
“Of course, how silly of me.”
Debra filled their plates with the different food selections arrayed at
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the table. Wild rice mixed with well-steamed carrots and peas, an apple and banana each, and a loaf of bread that had been torn into already. Then
Debra reached forward and lifted a hood, revealing the main selection.
Sirloin, cut into thin strips, mixed with onion and green peppers.
“Wow, springing for all the extras today, aren’t we!”
“Well…” Debra hid a devious smile. “Better get used to it,”
Grissom’s body went rigid, and he pushed the table away while glaring
at Debra. “I told you, we don’t use my position as a privilege for anything.”
Debra pretended to be disappointed and looked away from him. “I see.
Always got to make things about you, don’t you?” she snapped.
Grissom stood up from the table. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I fancy how you jump to conclusions, that I got this food
because of you!”
“So how did you get the food, then?”
“You can’t think of any way a woman might have been able to get
choice foods?”
Grissom’s mind raced, but the longer he thought about it, the darker his
mind went, and he stopped himself before he let himself get carried away.
“Not so cunning today, are we?”
Grissom pursed his lips and squinted at her, but the effort brought him
no closer to an answer.
Debra stood slowly and took a slow dramatic step towards him a slight
sway in her hips, her head down and eyes locked onto him, a lock of hair
partially obscuring her face. Grissom didn’t move, as he waited for her to
get to the point while being entirely distracted by her bodily movements.
“Really, you can’t think of…any reason…why a woman…would get
choice food?” she asked, tucking her loose hair back behind her ear. She let
the comment linger in the air for a moment and moved her hands to her
belly, rubbing it slowly.
Rea
lization immediately dawned on him, and he closed the space
between them nearly instantly. He held her with fierce passion, with great
emotional tears running down his face.
“Now, he gets it,” she said softly into his ear, a smile held wide on
her face.
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* * *
“Just get to the river!” the man shouted from behind.
“We will never make it, it’s way too far!”
In the distance, small pops from a pistol broke through the trees, fol-
lowed by terrible, gut-wrenching screams. If she could will her feet to move
faster, she would have. As it was, they just didn’t seem fast enough.
“How many does that leave us?” asked a woman breathlessly, running
alongside her, weaving around trees and jumping over a large root and
fallen tree trunks.
“Five, but Luis is falling behind.” She managed to say one word at a
time between breaths. She turned to look back at her colleague. His red
rescue shirt was a sharp contrast against the jungle.
“Forgot about me! I’ll distract them,” he said, panting heavily and
slowing to rest against a tree.
The other four continued to run, finally exiting the canopy of the
jungle into a very large field filled with tall grass that blocked their view.
Yet they continued to run despite the danger. The ground was uneven, and
she heard her friend fall just off to her side. Fear gripped her, unsure if he fell because he was next, or if he hit an uneven patch of ground, hidden
by the tall grass. She didn’t look back, in spite of her instinct to do so, and kept running.
“I’m okay!” he shouted as he stood back up. He continued to run,
panting heavily and limping a little on his left leg. They had no idea what
direction his friends were running in, surrounded as they were by grass
taller than them.
Luis screamed terribly from behind them, the noise encouraging them
into a second wind. He run as fast as he could away from that scream,
knowing that there was now nothing between him and the killing machine
trailing them except a rapidly-closing distance.
He was almost halfway across the field when his foot caught in a rabbit
hole, sending him face-first into the firm soil, his forehead smacking a rock.
He opened his eyes, about to scramble to his feet, but a Zorn leg appeared
in the corner of his eye. He froze as another leg appeared. It walked directly 275
over him, inches away from his face. Trembling, he struggled to keep from moving or making any sound, playing dead in the dirt.
Something caught his attention in the sky. An odd-looking collection
of cargo containers floated in the air, looking so ridiculously out of place
that he thought he was hallucinating, or that he was dead.
A red beam of light appeared, shooting towards the Zorn. The crea-
ture made a terrible whistling sound and took off away from him. The red
beam appeared again, this time for much longer, aiming after the Zorn.
The drone, rushing through the tall grass, suddenly grew silent as the grass
caught on fire around it, spreading quickly.
Noticing the new danger, he stood up and tried to run, but his head
swam, causing him to stumble. Too dizzy to realize where he was going, he
walked right onto a metal ramp of some kind. He managed to focus, look-
ing up and into one of the container craft. A man sat at the far end of the
container, a headset over his ears.
“Get in a seat, quick!” he waved him on.
Without questioning his fortune, he moved to one of several large seats
lining the walls. “Find my friends, they were right ahead of me,” he said
in Spanish.
The pilot wasted no time as he lifted the craft from the group, flying in
a wide circle.
“Are you with the UEF?” he asked in Spanish.
“No, my name is Jorge. I was just in the area,” the pilot replied in the
same language.
Jorge quickly found the other people and landed the craft in front
of them. They hesitated until they saw their friend in the seat, then
exchanged glances.
“Why are you standing there? Get on!”
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Chapter 25
Unexpected
THE UEF ENTERPRISE was back exploring space, far from home. They
visited star after star on their list but discovered no obvious civilizations.
They were heading to Wolf 1061 next, one of the last stars to scout out
before they returned home for the christening of their sister ship, the
UEF Discovery.
The blue interior lights of the ship during FTL transition disappeared,
and the ship shuddered a little as the warp bubble collapsed.
“Welcome to Wolf 1061, Captain,” Symboli stated.
“Initiating scans,” the sensor operator said out of habit.
Alex pulled up the sensor display scans onto his display screen. The
screen initially showed just the star, then quickly added several smaller
planets and their orbits, followed by a band signifying the standard asteroid
belt present in every star system they visited so far, though their densities
varied greatly.
The sensor screen turned red as icons appeared across the screen.
“Sir, detecting active scans,” the tactical officer announced.
“Picking up multiple signals. Our communication array is swamped.”
“Multiple ships inbound.”
“Time to arrival?” Alex yelled above everyone else, attempting to set priorities.
“The ships are maneuvering, slowly gaining speed… Sir, contacts are
coming from multiple vectors.”
Everyone was silent, letting the sensor operations officer answer the
Captain’s question.
“Given their acceleration curve, the nearest threat is six to ten days
away. There is no imminent danger to the ship, and congratulations, Cap-
tain, for discovering a completely unknown spacefaring civilization,” Sym-
boli said.
It was the first time Alex wished that Symboli inhabited a physical
form, if for no other reason than to peer into its face over such an odd com-
ment, congratulations in the face of a threat. Alex watched as the sensor
operator closed the computer window he was using to run calculations,
then slumped slightly in his seat.
“Everyone get busy. I want to know everything there is to know about
what’s out here.”
Alex’s screen changed, displaying an empty window. Various ship
designs appeared on the screen, some overlapping others as Symboli tried to
fit them all on the display, scans taken from the closest vessels on approach, and then from ships further out. The vessels were small.
“Anyone else think these vessels are a bit small for spacefaring folk?”
“The largest ship is barely larger than the UEF Destiny and is just starting to head this way. The ship is coming from the largest planet in the
system. It’s too early to say how long it will take it to arrive.”
“Alex, you will be pleased to know that they sent enough information
through that I can begin offering a translation. If you would like, I can use
native inflection and tone to translate their language,” Symboli said.
“Really! That’s awesome. Do it!” Alex said excitedly.
“Which audio
source would you like me to begin with, the nearest ship,
the largest ship, or the planet? It seems the messages are very different.”
“Start with the nearest ship.”
“When are you? Go destroy yourself or plant a flag,” Symboli said in a
very soft, low and barely audible voice. Despite his low tone, it had hints of screeching around a few vowels.
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“I don’t think you got that right,” Alex smiled over at Lanora.
“Agreed, I am still making improvements in stride. Here is a repeating
message from the planet.
“Point here, guests of the deep. Talk haste. Knowledge is good,” Symboli said in the alien voice, then continued in his normal voice, “I am starting
to receive new signals from the planet, patching to the main viewscreen.”
The viewscreen now showed a face of an alien, covered by a tremendous
amount of visual static. The face was a reddish-brown color, but it was hard
to make out specifics because of the visual distortions and static. It was
clearly alien.
“Oh my god,” several people exclaimed. Some stood up from their
chairs and covered their mouth.
Lenora sat there with a huge grin on her face, while Alex remained pas-
sive. “Not globs of goo or computer chips or walking monsters. Real aliens.”
“Point here, guests of the deep. Talk haste. Knowledge is good, ” Symboli repeated in the alien voice again. The image on the screen jumped, and the
movement of the alien repeated itself.
“Alex, this image is on a loop, and it’s repeating the same message.
There’s another ship transmitting something more concerning.”
The viewscreen changed to the sensor map and zoomed in on one of
the closer ships en route to their location. Symboli spoke again. “Hunt.
Hunt. Hunt. Hunt. Hunt…”
“What the hell…?” Lanora muttered.
“It’s clear Symboli hasn’t translated perfectly. I w—”
“I have made many assumptions and probabilities to get me to this
point. There are only a few transmissions I can examine that allow me to
hone the translation. I will not be confident until I can verify my transla-
tion in a face-to-face encounter,” Symboli said, cutting Alex off.
“Defensive, are we?” Alex replied with a raised eyebrow, but no reply
came. “Continue monitoring, start relaying this information to the rest of
the crew and see what everyone comes up with. Schedule a crew meeting
tomorrow morning. Keep our position here in the meantime.”
Neighbors Page 33
