The Next Thing I Knew (Heavenly)

by John Corwin

  She staggered back a few feet. Regained her balance and stared at me, tears in her eyes. "I loved Anil. I would never do anything to hurt him. Never. I love you and my sisters and brothers here. I believe in what we're doing."

  "It was a female voice telling Cassiel what to do, Missy. A female. Your host. Explain that, please. Nobody else can just jump into another person's host while they're inside without them knowing. Even so it takes hours to open up two-way communication with a new host."

  "I don't know," she said. "I don't remember anything."

  "Maybe her unconscious mind was dreaming," Kyle said. "Maybe Cassiel picked up on that."

  I growled and turned away. Part of me wanted to find the concrete cause of the problem and beat the tar out of it. Another part hurt because I'd believed in Missy. Even if it had been a mistake, what if it happened again? I turned back to the group.

  "I don't know what happened. Maybe you betrayed us, maybe you just messed up. Bottom line, we can't afford for it to happen again."

  "We don't have enough volunteers to control the Shaval," Jane said. "I vote we keep her."

  "Fine, a vote. Who's in favor?"

  Six hands went up.

  "Opposed?"

  Six more hands. I hadn't voted yet. I stared at Missy. I remembered the dedication she'd shown. Never once had she failed with the Rrilk. But this mistake cost a life. Anil's life. I bit my lower lip. Anil would probably believe her. Anil would let her prove herself. Plus, Jane was right. We didn't have enough people right now and despite my threats against the Shaval, I didn't want to murder them.

  "Missy, you're back. But we have to keep an eye on you."

  She brushed away her tears and nodded. "Thank you."

  I turned to the others, trying to remain calm. Trying not to let my doubt worm into my resolve. "Reeducation starts soon, folks. Let's get started."

  The group dispersed. I trudged outside and sat on a tree stump. My thoughts were heavy with Anil. I missed him so much. Grief welled up inside, choking me with pain.

  Someone sat next to me. I jerked upright and wiped my eyes.

  "Hi," Chris said.

  "Hi." I trembled with desire for his touch, for a friendly hug.

  "I've been really unfair to you."

  "Chris--"

  "Hush for once, Lucy. Let me finish."

  I nodded.

  "After assimilating the Rrilk and Shaval, I learned what it must've been like merging with Nick." He sighed. "It's like a drug. You feel—actually feel—life! Life pumping through you, hot blood in your veins, and the real world against your flesh. It's amazing. It's like living again."

  "I know."

  "Anil told me about your fears with Nick. In retrospect, I think you did the right thing."

  I managed a faint smile, remembering that conversation with Anil. I'd told him everything, more than anyone else. I'd trusted him that much. I loved Anil as a brother. But I didn't love him in the same way I did Chris. I wanted Chris, wanted to feel him against me again, his lips pressed to mine, his strong arms braced against the small of my back, his breath on my neck.

  Chris touched me tentatively on the shoulder. "I want to be your friend. I want to fix things between us."

  My heart dropped into my stomach. I fought to keep the tremble from my lips. I stood up. "Sure." I held out my hand and shook his. "Friends."

  "Wait, Lucy--"

  "Yes?"

  "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

  "Absolutely fine." I almost popped a figurative blood vessel trying to keep back the tears.

  He stood and hugged me, but it felt reticent, like he wasn't sure how to do it properly or had never hugged a woman. In short, it was awkward. I bit my lip harder to keep from crying and shambled away. When I was sure he was gone, I bawled and cursed Bethany, Nick, and most of all, my own stupidity. I had lost him. Me.

  "Get a hold of yourself, idiot," I said slapping my cheek. "There's a world to save first. Then you can feel sorry for yourself." It seemed a fair deal, so I took it.

  My head tingled with the sensation of an incoming call. I answered but it took a moment to figure out who it was.

  Robby?

  Lucy, where have you been all this time?

  Sorry, kiddo. Aliens, giant bugs, end of the world stuff to deal with. You know how it is.

  Giant bugs? Really?

  Yeah. I felt guilty. I hadn't talked to him for a while. Not since Ms. Tate and her goons had tried to force my conversion.

  I need you, Lucy.

  I'm sorry, hon. I never did make that bed or tuck you in, did I?

  No but that's okay. This is really big and bad.

  What is?

  Mom and Dad are gone.

  I gritted my teeth. They'd promised not to take off and abandon Robby again. I'll find them, honey. And give them a verbal thrashing too.

  I know where they are. I can talk to them but they can't come to me.

  What do you mean?

  Ms. Tate took them. They say they can't get away.

  Chapter 25

  I disconnected from Robby and contacted Mom. She didn't answer. I tried Dad but didn't get a response. As if the end of the world wasn't enough, now I had issues on the home front. But how could Ms. Tate hold two ghosts against their will? It didn't make sense. I tried calling them a few more times but had no luck. I already had a black knot of stress in my guts and this doubled it.

  Kyle contacted his parents after I told him. His parents were elusive about it, saying some people were ignoring the truth, that we were making things worse by interfering with God's will. Kyle wanted to flit to them straight away but I convinced him not to.

  "Something bad is going on in Heavenly," I said. "But we have too much to do here first. If the Shaval have their way, none of this will matter."

  He clenched his jaw. "We need to take care of this before we leave the planet at least. Hell only knows what Ms. Tate has been up to."

  "I agree. We at least need to check it out." I tried to sound reasonable, but on the inside my emotions tore at me to take immediate action. I couldn't afford to rush in. Not after my last encounter with Ms. Tate and the realization that she and her goons could physically hold me in place somehow. There were rules about our states of being that I still didn't understand.

  The next few days stretched on forever as we worked on the Shaval issues. Another committee from Zalista queried them about their status. They had to report to another committee, naturally, since the Shaval probably took a dump by committee. As Diana, I stalled for time, telling them there were technical issues with the transmitter in question and that the trace may have been caused by a fault caused by falling debris or ionic discharge in the atmosphere.

  Kyle's the one who came up with that BS. The committee we were to issue a final report to was a defense committee of sorts. They didn't want intelligent alien races knowing their zip code just in case said aliens had the capacity to do damage. We figured once we gave them a final report, the committees would forget about Earth, and once we deleted Earth from their database, that would be that.

  But the Shaval weren't coming to our side. If anything, they viewed our old lives as pathetic and anything but self aware. In fact, they talked about us after the sessions.

  Diana rolled her eyes at Gabriel after our latest session. "This high school society proves without a doubt that humans possessed low levels of intelligence but absolutely no self awareness. When Alice made the other girls hate Sally simply because of her choice in fashion apparel, it was abhorrent."

  Gabriel nodded. "And the emphasis on their brutal sports is further proof. The primitive male players received the attention of the most desirable females while intelligent males were derided."

  So says the fat brainy Shaval, I thought.

  Okay, so life as a teenager probably wasn't the best thing to share with aliens. But it had been a part of us. Maybe the entire human race had acted like teenagers in high school compared to the almighty Shaval, but th
ere were good sides to us as well. Jane came closest to breaking through by sharing memories of her as a child and her father playing with her. The female Shaval reacted most favorably to those memories, but they still didn't convince them we were anything but intelligent animals with no place in their universe.

  "Even mindless animals can express love," Bethany's host, Laylah said.

  I called things off after a week. So much for winning the hearts and minds of elitist aliens. Trying to prove sentience was like trying to prove God didn't exist to Ms. Tate. The controlling committee on Zalista was asking for a wrap-up of duties. That meant killing off Zhrrii and her crew, and any other crews that might know the location of Zalista. A replacement Rrilk crew would be arriving any day and the pressure was making me more irritable than usual.

  "The Shaval aren't going to see our side of things," I said. "And we don't need all of them anyway."

  "You aren't going to kill them, are you?" Jane asked. The rest of the group had the same question in their eyes.

  "Of course not. We only need a couple of Shaval to accompany us to Zalista. Once there, we locate the key individuals we need and assimilate them."

  "What about the ones we leave here?"

  "They'll be cared for by the Rrilk. Two Rrilk will accompany us as well just in case something goes really wrong."

  "And the replacement crews?" Kyle asked.

  "Zhrrii will explain things to them. It shouldn't be a problem. The Shaval ship will get us to Zalista in a couple of days. It shouldn't take more than a day to find the committee members, and a week or so to assimilate them and have them take the vote. Once we get the encryption key, we assimilate the database administrator, use the encryption key, and delete all record of Earth from the database. Then we return to Earth. The Shaval here will be welcome to live out the rest of their days on Earth. Preferably in Antarctica or in the middle of a gator-infested swamp."

  "What about the other committees that dealt with Earth?" Jane asked. "Won't they remember it?"

  "Most of those committees disbanded once the eradication was carried out."

  "I want blood," Mike said. "I don't believe in murder, but don't we deserve retribution somehow for what they did to us? A little payback?"

  A few murmurs of agreement went up from the others. I pursed my lips. "What would be different from killing the Shaval on Zalista as opposed to the ones already here? Just a moment ago nobody wanted them killed."

  "We deserve some kind of justice," Mike said. "What if this plan doesn't work? Maybe we need to deter them from screwing with us ever again."

  "Amen, brother," Liu Chan said, slapping him on the back. "Blow the shit out of those bastards." He'd been in the Chinese special forces before the end and seen some brutal stuff. "We could hold a trial for the ones we have here."

  "At the very least, we should steal their defensive technology, and the knowledge to make our own," Kyle said. "We may technically be dead but--"

  "I think we can fix that," Missy said.

  All eyes riveted on her.

  "Cassiel's day job deals with alien life form preservation for various zoos around the galaxy. He can take DNA samples from anything and clone it."

  "So they could clone our bodies?"

  "Why not? Then we hop back inside, good as new. The clinic he works for also clones Shaval body parts. Except for terrible accidents, they can live just about forever."

  "One ethical problem," I said. "What happens if the clone wakes up with a soul? I don't know how I'd feel having two of me inside the same body. Or worse, it might not be anything like me. I'd be a walking schizo."

  "If they care so much about alien life preservation, why did they kill us?" Bethany said. She pointed in the general direction of the imprisoned Shaval. "Those assholes have double standards worse than a man whore."

  A few people laughed. I couldn't. All I could do was look at her and picture her and Chris in a tangle of naked limbs. I felt sick but pushed it aside. An argument broke out between various factions, one wanting blood, the other simply to erase ourselves from Shaval memory and vanish. I wasn't sure which I side I sat on. Every time I saw Azriel, I wanted to kick him in the crotch. But that might be because he was Harb's host. Harb, for his part, stood apart from the others and watched them bicker. He was in his older guise. I noticed he'd beefed up his biceps a little, turned his skin white and his eyes blue. His gaze settled on me but betrayed no emotion. I wondered what he was thinking. If anything he seemed to have lost interest. I wasn't sure if I should care or not, so long as his commitment didn't waver.

  Nibbles flitted to me about then and settled onto my shoulder. He rubbed his furry face against my cheek and purred. I pulled him into my arms and pressed his cute little nose to mine and gave him Eskimo kisses.

  "Oh, Nibbles, maybe you should tell us what to do."

  He meowed and purred. I held him in my arms and stroked him. A red feather drifted from somewhere. His feline eyes locked onto it but he seemed too content with my embrace to attack the feather. I set him down and held my hands up.

  "Quiet, everyone. Here's what I propose. We follow through on the database plan. While doing that, the other team procures defensive weaponry schematics and plans. It shouldn't be hard due to their open information policy."

  "Not for military weapons," Chris said. "Gabriel once served on the home world defense committee. To access information on weapons you need an encryption key from their committee."

  I groaned. "Is it 13 members like most of their committees?"

  "Yes."

  "We don't have enough people to deal with that."

  "On the bright side, most of their defenses are automated, including their navy."

  "And?"

  "Gabriel toured several of their battleships and most are run by very small crews, most no more than five people, including the captain."

  "We could steal a battleship?"

  "Yes. There are ten battleships. Each one has a copy of the central database on it and the captains have unlimited access. That is if they haven't changed procedure since Gabriel served on the committee."

  "So we'll need to split our forces."

  "Yes. I recommend that at least half of us go for a battleship."

  "But we need almost everyone for the committee."

  "You only need 7 votes for a majority," Kyle said. "Once you win the vote, the committee will create the encryption key and you'll be set."

  After talking strategy for a few more hours, we came up with something workable. It scared the hell out of me but we really didn't have a choice. I talked Ben into taking over Hadriel now that Anil was gone forever. He still had religious issues but I used guilt as my lever. We sent a final report back to Zalista saying the trace was part of a self-repair process after falling debris damaged the transmitter. They bought my explanation and told us to pack up and come home. Azriel, as guardian, was charged with liquidating Zhrrii and her crew in case they somehow knew Zalista's coordinates. We faked it, of course. Their replacements arrived two days later but quickly joined the cause after the other Rrilk explained things to them.

  It was a busy, busy week.

  I chose Gabriel and Bob as the Shaval to accompany us. Chris and Kyle were solid and had my complete faith. We didn't want too many of the Shaval with us since we would have to lock them up during the trip.

  We reached the point where all that was left to do was hop in the Shavals' fancy spaceship and blast off. Harb approached me as I used Diana to look up some things in the ship's limited database.

  "We need to take Azriel," he said.

  "We already have two Shaval to deal with. From a security standpoint it doesn't make sense to take more."

  "I can knock him out for days if needed. It will not be a big deal."

  An uneasy sensation tingled on the back of my neck. Harb was up to something. "Why?"

  "Azriel is the guardian. They assign one to any committee with extraterrestrial duties. He's the one who has to sign off the mome
nt they arrive at Zalista and deliver a debriefing."

  I queried Diana's implant and sure enough, his information was true. The uneasy part of me relaxed. "You're prepared to deliver on that?"

  He smiled, showing almost every one of Azriel's perfect teeth. "Of course. You realize now you don't need one of the other two Shaval to come with us."

  I had just started to relax my BS sensor when his words reactivated it. He know Kyle and Chris were tops in the group. He hated both of them from what I could tell even though Chris and I weren't seeing each other anymore. I looked at him and returned his smile.

  "They've already got plenty to do once we arrive. Removing them now would require extra planning. Probably best if we stick to the plan."

  He nodded. "Very well." He turned to walk away, stopped. "By the way, I'm sorry about Anil. I know how very much you liked him."

  The tone of his words chilled me. They lacked any trace of sincerity. "Thanks, Harb," I said, forcing the words out. Deep inside, I knew Harb was happy to have Anil gone. I was surprised he hadn't made a move for leadership yet. As I watched him go, I had the feeling that the other shoe would drop soon. And when it did, I wouldn't like it. But with only a couple days until liftoff, he'd have to make a move soon.

  I got the group together that evening. "If you have family to say goodbye to, I recommend you do it now. There's a chance we might not make it back."

  A lot of heads nodded in silent reply. None of us had been back to Heavenly in a long while. Things had been too busy. My nerves had tightened a little more every day thinking about Robby and my parents. I'd tried calling them daily but had no luck.

  Kyle and I told Mike and Chris about my troubles.

  "If something happens to us, we might need you to take over operations," I told Chris.

  "Are you two crazy? We can't afford to lose either of you if we're going to stand a chance on Zalista."

  Kyle gave me a guilty look as he spoke. "We have to look in on our parents. Something is up and we can't just leave."

  Chris nodded. "Anything you need, Lucy. I'm in."

  "We got your backs," Mike said. "Don't worry about a thing."