"Okay, I get it. So, what about the cartoon?" I asked.
"It was called Robotech and this is similar to what happened there. An alien spacecraft crashed on Earth and when other aliens showed up to get it the thing turns its big guns on and starts plastering away at the incoming aliens. The humans figure out it's a boobytrap. That's all. But doesn't it seem that this is what is happening here?"
Mike, download all info on Robotech to Tatiana and me.
Okay, Steven. There are books and television shows.
Download them all. In fact, download any and all science fiction relating to alien attack, Tatiana thought to Mike.
Okay. Mike downloaded the television series, all of the director's stories and cuts and then the books. The books were very impressive and by the third or fourth chapter in the first one I understood the boobytrap reference. It took a few seconds more to download all alien attack related science fiction.
"Actually, the parallels are thin here. This seems more like landmines to me like in Screamers or that episode of Deep Space Nine where Nog got his leg shot off," Anne Marie said. They all seemed to have impressive knowledge of the pertinent science fiction. My first guess had been that they all liked impressing each other with their knowledge of the classical science fiction and that they tried to outdo each other with their knowledge of useless trivia. I soon realized that I was wrong and that such obscure knowledge does seem to come in quite handy in their day jobs, which appeared to now include defending the human race from alien attackers—much like in many science fiction stories. Too bad nobody ever wrote a serious textbook on how to defend against an alien attack; it would have been useful. Maybe someone did, perhaps it's classified and I never had access to it. I would have to ask about that.
"That's right, Annie, landmine strategy is the same thing though. It's a boobytrap scenario." Tabitha smiled approvingly at her daughter. "If you are a retreating force that is being overrun or forced out of a territory, if there is time, you leave behind hazardous things like landmines and spiked pits and other nasty surprises to slow down an advancing enemy. They might also try to create a long-term strategy to give you an edge in future battles. Perhaps we and these other isolated civilizations are more than just boobytraps."
"How so?" Al asked.
"Haven't you ever played Risk?" Jim asked. "It's simple! If you can keep a small country like New Zealand, as well as your main portion of the globe, you can win the game. What you do is attack on the main lines and this makes your opponents forget about the little country on the bottom corner of the planet because they are fighting for their lives back at the front. You grow the military might of New Zealand, which is behind the enemy lines. Once you start weakening slightly on the main front lines, then you come sweeping up through China and in behind the enemy with your war machine that you built in New Zealand. That's it! All of these little quarantine zones are New Zealand and, let me think, what were the other strategic locations . . . Oh yeah, there was Madagascar and Greenland and Japan. That is exactly what this looks like on the map. It's galactic Risk!"
"Yeah, but we aren't in cahoots with the Lumpeyins. And we aren't building an army for them," Sara said.
Anson shooed a big fat cat out from under his feet and finished taking the steaks off the built-in gas grill at the far end of the sunroom. He set the still-sizzling steaks on the table before us. They smelled good. "Are you so sure about that, Sara? Mike, could we be in cahoots with these here Lumpeyins?" he asked in his stereotypical Southernese.
"I do not have enough data to come to that conclusion, but the suggestions that have been made thus far are quite plausible," Mike replied.
"I just thought of something," 'Becca added. "Perhaps we have been building an army for these Lumpeyins. Look at the graphic of the abductions. The numbers of abductions increase every time there is a war of major proportions. And the abductions spiked again here in 2011—they spiked by an order of magnitude. Does that year mean anything to any of us, Anson. . . Jim? She made a point to look at Anson and Jim and emphasize their names.
"I don't see . . . Holy shit!" Anson said.
"The first warp experiment we did where the electrons disappeared!" Jim exclaimed.
"That is exactly it!" Tabitha said. "You are onto something here, 'Becca. The Grays got very interested when the warp era started. And look at the big spike during the Warp War with the Asians!"
"Not only that," 'Becca continued. "We have, with Steven and Tatiana's help, developed a way to shoot down and maybe destroy the Gray ships."
Anson pulled the rest of the corn on the cob off the grill with his tongs and arranged the food in the middle of the table just to the left of the speaker.
"Dig in before it gets cold, folks." He pulled his apron off. "Y'all know that this is bad news. If the Grays realize that we have a means of really becoming a threat to them, what are the odds that they will wipe us out? And why didn't they do that already?"
"We can't tell Senator Grayson about any of our further advancements. We will slow roll him and lie if we have to from now on," Tabitha said as she loaded her plate with a steak, baked potato, and corn on the cob. She took a swig from her beer and sat back down on her side of the table. "We need to go see the President, soon."
"I think we need to go see the Grays," I said.
"No!" Tatiana screamed. Her response was unexpected and it startled all of us. She was trembling uncharacteristically.
"Tatiana?" I was a bit concerned by her strange response—isolated abductee rang in my mind.
"I . . . I . . . I don't know why I did that," she said. "It was like, I don't know, I needed to keep us from ever wanting to see the Grays of our own free will. As soon as I realized what I had said, the feeling went away."
Anson turned to me, "Son, did you have the same feeling?"
"No, I didn't," I said.
"Tatiana, my dear, I believe you have been conditioned somehow to stay away from the Grays. That was a typical response of someone with a posthypnotic suggestion," Anson told her. "Don't worry, dear. We're all here for you and will help you to keep your sanity. We will figure out what these little Gray bastards are up to and we will put a stop to it. Y'all eat, it's getting cold. I need a beer—anybody need anything while I'm up?" Anson wandered off to the kitchen.
We finished dinner with more chat along the same lines. We were all beginning to realize that the Grays were a threat to us as long as we remained a threat to them. We also all agreed that we were not about to put down our arms and just give up. None of us believed that the abductions would stop if we quit building warp drives and stayed on Earth. The Grays had somehow been around for at least most of the recorded portion of our history. There must have been more to it than Mike had data on because there were so many people throughout our history who had described the Gray spacecraft and abduction scenarios in extreme detail. But Mike had continued to explain the impossibility of this. Something just didn't add up.
Tatiana and I had no memory of the things, which backed up Mike's story. So we wondered why or how did other people see them and remember them. We sat around and talked and drank beer and talked some more. Then we drank more. It was fun. Tatiana seemed at home and so did I. I hadn't actually felt this good since way before The Rain and my wacky period of insanity. This was home. I wish Laz could have lived to see it.
"Tatiana, don't you think your father must miss you and wonder where you are?" Anson asked her.
"Uh, no. I saw my father last week. 'Becca and I flew down to New York to see him. Didn't she tell you?" Tatiana said.
"Hey, I don't have to tell him everything I do," 'Becca responded.
"Rebecca does what Rebecca wants to do." Anne Marie laughed a bit uncomfortably. The two women were very headstrong and my guess was that they butted them together on occasion. Rebecca wasn't stunned by the remark at all.
"Well, anyway, I was thinking that we need to go see him again. This time take Steven with you, and Mike. See if your father is of
the type that would be an isolated abductee. Then we go see the President and tell him as much as we have about our situation."
"I have met the President, with my father last year," Tatiana said. "Perhaps he is compromised as well?"
"I never thought of that, but of course he could be. After all, he is one of the most powerful men on the planet," Anson said.
"Well," I started. "Just get me close and Mike will let me know." The President could be compromised. He wasn't an abductee yet or Mike would know. It was a good sign at least that he was not an abductee, but that didn't mean he wasn't an isolatee. We would find out soon.
CHAPTER 19
"It is nice to meet you too, Ambassador Svobodny, and congratulations on your new assignment," I told the ambassador in Russian as I shook his hand. He sized me up and didn't seem to disapprove.
"Thank you, Mr. Montana. My daughter speaks very highly of you. She tells me that you rescued her from some very unsavory individuals and to that I owe you my gratitude." He smiled at me and I was immediately nervous. Had Tatiana told him about the Grays?
Don't worry, Stevie. I told him that you rescued me from some frat boys at a party while I was away at school and that you and I whupped them all. Tatiana's perfect Southern dialect resounded in my head.
"I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, sir. It was my gain to meet Tatiana. She is . . . amazing," I said, again in Russian.
"Your Russian is perfect, Mr. Montana. Where did you learn it?"
"It's something I've been studying recently. Tatiana is helping me with Russian and I am helping her with English." It wasn't all a lie. I would have never thought to learn Russian if she hadn't been on the Grays' ship with me and, Tatiana probably wouldn't have learned English either.
"Is that right?" He switched to English. "Tatiana speaks English now?" He raised an eyebrow at his daughter as if to see if she understood him.
"Yes, Father. I understand you quite well and can speak English very well," she said with a Russian accent. I guess it was better not to give all of her talents away.
Tatiana's father showed us around the United Nations and the city. I had never been to New York. It had been months since the abduction and since I had actually been back on Earth. The sights, sounds, and smells of New York City should have been overwhelming for me, right? They weren't, really. I don't know if I was more focused on the alien attackers or meeting Tatiana's father or if my new enhanced persona just handled the stimuli better. But I barely paid attention to the city.
The President was supposed to address the United Nations Security Council about the meteor impacts and future planetary defense-spending requirements later that evening. It was our plan to get me close enough to test the President for isolateeism.
Tabitha was certain that she could have gotten me in to meet the President but we didn't want to raise suspicion with security. My previous failed clearance might have raised some questions and now that I was hanging out with the W-squared crowd all of a sudden somebody in the right "need to know" circle might get curious. It was easier to go through Tatiana's connections since we didn't want to tip our hand to anybody with power who might be an isolatee just yet.
I know that you are thinking, what about Tatiana? She is an isolatee and we are carrying her around with us and telling her everything. She was an abductee—but not any longer! And we're all watching her closely. Mikhail is always with her. She is watching herself. No evil force has ever taken over her mind as far as we can tell. We aren't sure what else to do. What would you do? Besides that, you try to keep Tatiana from doing something she wants to do. Tell me before you try, because I want to be out of the solar system that day.
We spent the better part of the day in the back of a limousine driving around the city looking at this and that. Ambassador Svobodny took us to a swanky restaurant that must have been very expensive, but it didn't seem to impede his effort to order everything on the menu.
"Mr. Ambassador, I want to thank you for showing me such a great time today," I told him. Tatiana smiled at me from across the table and derailed my train of thought for a second.
"Father, must Steven continue with this Mr. Ambassador nonsense all evening?" she said in Russian.
"Of course not, my dear. Steven, in private feel free to call me Pyotir," he replied.
"Great, thanks, I will," I told him. I felt Tatiana's foot rub up against my leg gently and I caught a devious look in her eye as her foot traveled further up my leg. Startled, at first, I was mostly nervous: Tatiana, what are you doing?
Nothing, what do you mean? She raised her left eyebrow at me as she took a sip of wine.
Uh, okay, but you are distracting me.
And your point is.
But your father might . . .
Oh pooh! That was all she said, but she didn't stop with the foot thing. It made me even more nervous than I had been.
"Daddy, if you will entertain Steven for a moment, I will excuse myself."
"Sure, darling, everything is fine?"
"Oh yes, just going to the lady's room."
"Very well," he said, and she kissed him on the cheek.
Once Tatiana was clear of earshot I told him that she definitely was headstrong and had a mind of her own.
"Just like her mother, that one. She is one hellstorm if she doesn't get her way. She always has been." He chuckled with a deep belly laugh and his large stomach jiggled a bit. His political guardedness relaxed for a moment, he seemed more human—more like the father of the woman I was in love with. Maybe his laughing and speaking to me frankly is what led me to say what I said next.
"Pyotir, Mr. Svobodny, I am thinking of asking Tatiana to marry me and I would like your permission before I do," I stammered.
"My boy, you are charming but foolish." He laughed deeply and sincerely and at first I thought he was making fun of me.
"Why is that?" I asked, a bit hurt.
"My boy, as you have just agreed, Tatiana does what Tatiana wants to do. If I gave you my permission or not it has no bearing on what she plans to do. You are noble if not naive. I like that."
"Well, I meant that I intended to ask her and I hoped that you approve of me is all. Of course, she might say no. And in that case I will simply walk away and not be a bother as I plan to crawl under a rock somewhere and die."
"Steven, I like you. If you want my approval, there you have it. If anything you seem to have done something for her confidence and her appearance. Look at her; she has never looked so alive and vivacious in all her life. I think she would say yes. Yes, I'm sure of it."
Tatiana touched my shoulder and bent down as though to whisper in my ear. She held her hand over her mouth and bit my earlobe. What are you two talking about?
Just guy stuff.
"Ah, sit down, my dear. Steven was just explaining this crazy tuck rule in American professional football. That damned rule cost me ten thousand dollars last year." I guess he assumed that all Americans follow football. Unfortunately, I don't.
Fortunately, I have an alien computer inside me that has a database of basically all human public knowledge. Mike, download to me all the rules of professional football (American) and outcomes of all of the games last year where the "tuck rule" was pertinent.
"Really, Steven. Football, huh, do tell," Tatiana teased me since she knew I didn't follow sports that much.
"Well, fortunately I had bet on the Forty Niners and not the Jets. You see, I'm originally from California. I used to be a Colts fan but since there is no longer an L.A., I just can't get fired up about the Las Vegas Colts. Yeah, I agree with you, though. I haven't liked that damned tuck rule since I started watching the game, but I'll take the three hundred bucks it got me." I went on to explain the details of the rule. Once, Tatiana stuck her tongue out at me.
You cheated and used Mike didn't you?
Who's Mike? Never heard of him. I winked back at her.
After dinner and a few drinks we finally made it to the U.N. buil
ding—oh, the life of a politician is hard isn't it? The President made his speech to the Security Council and it lasted a good thirty minutes. It was televised and a big hullabaloo. Tatiana and I were told to wait in a guest room near Ambassador Svobodny's office until someone came to get us.
Instead of waiting there we decided to sneak out of the guest quarters and wander around taking a survey of isolatees. Sneaking out wasn't hard. We just opened the door to the room and walked around. After all, we weren't prisoners; we were guests.
We mapped most of the people in the periphery since the main players were in the meeting hall. About ten percent of the people we encountered were isolatees. Most all of the people we met were annoyed that I was trying to shake everybody's hand that I encountered. It got to be a bit obvious after a while, so we went to a more subtle approach. If I wanted to test them, Tatiana would distract them and then I would move in faster than they could see me and touch them. Once, I even reached through a wall and touched a security guard on the other side. I couldn't resist tickling his ear before I pulled my hand back through the wall. Tatiana giggled. We had fun for a while taunting the locals, but it finally got boring and we returned to the visitors' room near her father's office.
Tatiana actually did go out and look for the restrooms and was gone for a few minutes. She wanted to freshen up. She didn't really need to with the nanomachines at her disposal, but I find that I even like to take a leak every now and then. I picked up a pencil off the small desk in the corner of the little guest office and held it in my hand for a second. Plenty of carbon exists in pencils but I needed some gold.
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