Gaby’s jaw slackened. Whirling, she dashed to the window and peered through it. “Damn it! I left my windows down!”
Anka looked distinctly irritated and more than a little disconcerted when she turned to glance at him distractedly. “Look! Do me a favor and just … stay out of my head, ok? I’ve got serious work to take care of. I don’t have time to play house. And even if I did, and I was agreeable to this insane idea you’ve gotten, you aren’t real. And even if you were real, I can’t have children. So you’ll just have to look for someone else, ok?”
It had stopped raining by the time Gaby dashed to her car to put the windows up and the car was already wet. After debating whether she wanted it to steam dry in the Miami heat or air dry, she decided just to leave it.
“Freak storm,” she muttered, heading back inside and rushing back to the examination room.
Everyone glared at her when she returned. Deciding it would be best just to ignore them, she moved to the counter where she kept sterile gloves, drew on another pair, and moved back to the table. This time, determinedly ignoring her quivering belly, Gaby picked up the scalpel and carefully cut through the first layer of … whatever it was. As she gently tugged it free, she peered at the material. It was something woven. The gloves prevented her from feeling the texture, but she could see the weave. It reminded her strongly of papyrus, but of course the flora of South America, even so far in the past, would have been vastly different. Certainly some sort of plant had been processed and the fibers woven—another indication of a very advanced civilization.
“Their primitive minds were as clay.”
Gaby went rigid. The voice was becoming disturbingly familiar, and the arrogance of the statement was a clincher. Slowly she lifted her head. Anka was standing directly in front of her, half in and half out of her assistant, who had a peculiar look on his face as if he’d just felt something crawling up his pants leg.
“Yours is unable to believe anything at all unless it …,” he paused, seemed to be struggling for words and finally finished, “bites you in the ass. That is not an improvement.”
“Learning the local slang, I see,” Gaby murmured under her breath.
“I am not a figment of your imagination,” he growled.
“Yes, you are. Now go away. I’m busy.” When she glanced up again, he was gone. Relief filled her … for all of two seconds. The heat of a body pressed against her back. A hand settled on her belly and slowly glided downward. Gaby’s eyes widened as she felt his palm cup her mound and then his fingers stroked lightly between her legs.
She swallowed with an effort, cleared her throat. Surreptitiously, she dug her elbow backwards into … nothing. His heated breath caressed her ear. “Does that not feel real to you, Moonflower?”
“If you’re real, then show yourself.”
“I have.”
“To them!”
“For what purpose?”
“So they’ll stop looking at me like I’m crazy for talking to myself!”
“This will please you?”
“Infinitely.”
“So be it!”
Gaby lifted her head to look at the people standing on the opposite side of the table. They were staring fixedly at her, or rather a point behind her. As she watched, the color drained from their faces. Finally, almost collectively, they blinked, and then exchanged uncomfortable glances with one another.
They didn’t believe they’d seen him. She could see that.
“Something more dramatic?” Anka purred against her ear.
“Why not?” Gaby tried to say flippantly, though her voice quivered, ruining the effect.
The mummy sat up on the table. Anka materialized out of it and the mummy fell back on the table with a dull thud as he stepped from it as if shedding an overcoat.
Gaby staggered back, pressing a hand against her heart as it lurched painfully. The Hispanic woman and two of the men in the room screamed and dashed toward the exit. Anka cut them off, appearing in all his regal glory. “I am Anka! How dare you desecrate my temple!” he roared furiously. “I will lay waste to your lands. Your crops and animals will wither and die! Your man roots will shrivel. Your women will bear no fruit of their wombs!”
For several moments, everyone seemed frozen. Abruptly, pandemonium broke out and everyone began to shriek and run around and around in circles as if seeking escape. Finally, after colliding with one another repeatedly, they turned in mass and ran to the far corner of the room to cower.
Anka, Gaby saw when she finally managed to drag her gaze from her cowering co-workers and guests, looked immensely pleased with himself. He sauntered over to her, grasped her, and pulled her forcefully against his length. “You are pleased now, my treasure?” he asked smugly.
It took Gaby several moments to gather her wits. “You scared the shit out of everybody!” she said accusingly.
He turned and looked the huddled group over, sniffing disdainfully. “Not quite.”
“It’s an expression!” Gaby snapped testily.
He grinned cockily. “I know. I have gained an excellent grasp of your language and culture. Very interesting.”
“My god!” Gaby gasped as it slowly sank into her that they really had seen him, heard him utter his dramatic ‘god’ speech. Maybe she hadn’t lost her mind?
“Yes?”
“What?” she asked distractedly.
“You said, my god?”
Gaby glared at him. “I didn’t mean you.”
He glanced around. “There is none other here.”
“You are not a god!”
He tilted his head curiously, but she could see amusement dancing in his eyes. “The Brias believed I was.”
The people of the city who’d built the temple to him? “Because you made them believe you were.”
He shrugged. “Primitive minds.”
Horror dawned. “God! You have no idea what you’ve done. They’ll tell everyone.”
“And everyone will believe that they are mad,” he responded dismissively.
“What if they don’t? What if … what if they’re believed? You’ll have news people swarming all over you! You have no idea what that’s like. I have no idea, but I’ve seen it.”
“It matters not,” he said indifferently. “If they annoy me I will … make them regret it,” he finished at the look she gave him.
“But what about me?”
“If they annoy you, Moonflower, you need only say so and I will make them regret that also.”
Gaby shuddered, wondering exactly what he was capable of.
“Pretty much anything.”
“You read my mind!” she exclaimed, aghast, realizing finally that he had seemed to know what she was thinking several times before.
“It is a beautiful mind,” he said caressingly.
“Well! You weren’t invited in, damn it!” She shoved at him. Finally, with a great show of reluctance, he released her.
“You are damnably difficult to please!” he muttered irritably.
“I am impossible to please!” Gaby snapped. “And now that you’ve figured that out, go away!”
Liar! Anka whispered inside her mind, giving her a look that made her redden and long to slap his face. He folded his arms over his chest, studying her with a mixture of annoyance and amusement. “I cannot help but notice that you do not seem properly appreciative of the honor I have offered to bestow upon you.”
“Don’t start with that procreation thing again! Yes, I am deeply honored, of course, but I can’t. You’ll have to find someone else to bestow the honors on.”
“I chose you,” he responded implacably.
“And I’m flattered,” Gaby said testily. “But I’m also sterile, so you’ll have to look elsewhere.”
“You are not.”
“Not what?”
“Sterile.”
“The doctors said ….” She stopped, abruptly remembering he’d told her that night in the temple that he would give her what she believed s
he couldn’t have. But he couldn’t mean that! Even supposing he could do such a thing, how would he have known how desperately she had wanted it when she had so determinedly ignored the desire to have a child of her own?
Unless he’d been inside her mind before? “You’re telling me that dream I had was real?”
“You know it was not a dream.”
Gaby stared at him, but she simply couldn’t credit what he was telling her. Whatever he was—and she still wasn’t entirely convinced that he wasn’t a ghost, whatever he said to the contrary, maybe believed himself—he was just a little bit off his rocker. “My head hurts,” she said plaintively. “I don’t understand any of this and I’m not sure I want to. Just … go away, please.”
His lips tightened, but after a moment he shrugged and turned to survey the group in the corner thoughtfully. He stalked across the room toward them purposefully. His body simply faded halfway there and in his place was a thin stream of dancing blue light. It moved toward them, passed through them one by one and finally vanished altogether.
Her assistant, Paul, was the first to recover. Looking thoroughly confused, he glanced at the people huddled around him and shifted away from them. Everyone else, looking equally dazed and befuddled, straightened, looked curiously at the person next them and finally crossed the room to where she was waiting.
They didn’t remember what had happened, Gaby realized after studying their expressions for several moments. She was sure that was a good thing, and yet, at the same time, it brought new doubts to the surface, made her wonder if she’d imagined everything that had just happened.
Clearing her throat uncomfortably, she returned her attention to her work and began to carefully remove the cloths that had been soaked in something to help protect the remains. The body beneath was amazingly well preserved and still horribly desiccated because she could see the body was his, the beautiful shell that had once housed the spirit that seemed determined to plague the life out of her.
She felt like weeping. She’d known she would. In all the years that she had studied bones, they had been nothing more than bones. She’d never met, never known the life force that had made them a human being. That part of them had been long gone before they came to her, allowing a detachment she’d never considered callous.
How did she even know that Anka had ever looked as he appeared to her, she chastised herself?
If her own perceptions were to be believed, he’d taken control of the man who’d been in her apartment the night before. Maybe what he said was true and he wasn’t a spirit at all? Had never had a body? And these remains, this body that made her feel as if she’d lost someone important was only some primitive man he’d chosen to house him for whatever reason?
Which was harder to believe, she wondered? Ghosts? Or some being not human but dwelling among humans? Using them … for what? To amuse themselves? Because they liked playing god?
And was he the only one? Or was he from a race of beings that had become deified because they were capable of things no human was capable of?
She frowned as she carefully examined the remains for any sign of trauma that would indicate how he had died, her mind far more preoccupied with her thoughts than the body she was examining.
The ancients had given their gods human-like traits. She’d always wondered why. To feel closer to those whom they worshiped? Or was it because the ‘gods’ they worshiped were like Anka, who displayed very human-like thought processes and emotions, but was neither human nor actually a god?
A novel thought occurred to her after a moment. What if, she wondered, these beings had learned their behavior from the humans they’d ruled over and associated with? Perhaps they had actually begun to feel the emotions, and perhaps not. Maybe they’d only begun to mimic human behavior through long association?
Were they aliens, she wondered? Or something of this Earth that no one—at least no modern man—believed actually existed?
Say it was true—they hadn’t actually remained undetected, she mentally debated with herself. People had known of them, worshipped them. Maybe the myths recorded about them were actually historical records? The argument against other mythical things ever having existed was that they’d never been found. There was no tangible trace that they’d ever existed beyond the imaginations of the ancients.
Shaking the thoughts off after a time, she struggled to focus on her job and determine what she could about the remains. “There is no obvious signs of trauma that I can detect that would indicate a death that was not of natural causes,” she announced finally. “However, this appears to be a healthy male somewhere between twenty five to thirty five years of age and natural death is unlikely. The organs ….” She stopped, staring at the body hard, but she could see no incision that indicated the organs had been removed. “ … Are usually removed,” she added after a lengthy pause, “but even with them we might or might not be able to determine if he was poisoned or died of some illness.
“There are no outward signs of malnutrition or illness. The x-rays I had taken show no signs of broken bones pre or post mortem that might indicate blunt force trauma as the cause of death.
“This was a strong, healthy individual who obviously hailed from a well structured, wealthy society … at least in the sense that there was plenty of food and a surprisingly well balanced diet. He has all of his teeth. They are in good to excellent condition, and the subject is over six feet in height—six, one, and three quarters to be precise—a veritable giant for the time he supposedly lived in.
“This, of course, is merely a preliminary examination. If permission is granted, a portion of the wrappings can be submitted for carbon dating and there are a number of other tests that could be run on the remains—subject, naturally, to permission. Some would involve fairly minimal risks to the integrity of the remains as they would only require very small tissue samples, others would be more invasive and possibly more destructive.
“I’ll see that everyone gets a list explaining the details and possible advantages/ disadvantages so that the committee can decide what course we should take.”
Everyone simply stared at her blankly when Gaby had concluded her preliminary report. She wasn’t certain if that was because they were waiting for her to provide more information or if they were still rattled because of what had happened earlier. The memory lapse alone, and the discovery of finding themselves completely across the room from where they had been, was enough to disorient them even if they couldn’t actually remember what had happened.
And she didn’t believe they could.
“Thank you,” she added dismissively after several minutes had passed and no one made any attempt to leave. “This concludes the preliminary examination.”
It wasn’t until everyone had left with the exception of her boss, Dr. Juan Mendoza, and her assistant, Paul, that Gaby realized Anka hadn’t left as she’d supposed. Either that or he’d returned.
Almost as soon as the group had reluctantly filed out, she began to feel the eerie prickle along her skin that she’d learned to associate with his presence even when she couldn’t see him.
“An excellent job,” Dr. Mendoza commented when their guests had finally departed.
Gaby smiled wanly. “Thank you, Dr. Mendoza.”
He nodded. “None the worse for your experiences?” he inquired probingly.
Gaby tensed. As idle as the question seemed on the surface, his look was speculative. “I gather you’re referring to the night I spent in the temple?”
He shrugged. “Field work can be physically challenging, and mentally and emotionally exhausting. As happy as we are to have you back with us, it occurs to me that you might need a little down time.”
Gaby hoped he couldn’t see her smile was as forced as it felt. “What would I do with myself?”
“A little R & R never hurt anyone. You haven’t taken a vacation in quite a while.”
Because the little snot, Paul, had had a hard on for her position since he’d
been hired and she didn’t dare give him an opening. She wouldn’t have gone off to the wilds of the South American jungle if she’d been in a position to refuse. She’d been expected to leap at the chance for field experience, and, if she hadn’t, Paul would’ve volunteered, which would have given him experience he could use in his campaign for her job.
She could see from his body language, if not his expression, that he was hoping against hope that Dr. Mendoza would insist she take time off—which would allow him to proceed with the examination of the mummy by himself and take all the credit. It was bad enough she wouldn’t be credited with the find, even though it was her who’d fallen through the damned shaft and actually discovered the chamber. “I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine. Really. After all I’ve been through to get this far with the project I’d like to be the one to head up the studies of the Briacan Mummy.”
A puzzled expression descended over Dr. Mendoza’s features. “Briacan?”
A wave of cold crashed over Gaby. Giving herself a mental kick, she searched a little frantically for an explanation for knowledge she should have had no way of acquiring. “Sorry. I’d heard one of the natives refer to the area as Bria. My Spanish is a bit iffy. I suppose they might have been referring to something else—might have actually said something else, but that’s what it sounded like to me and I sort of mentally tagged the place by that name. Of course it’s up to Dr. Sheffield and his team to officially name the site.”
His expression lightened somewhat, but she could see he was still searching his mind for a Spanish word she might have confused. Finally, he seemed to dismiss it. “I’ll bow to your assurances that you’re able to continue then … for now. Don’t hesitate to talk to me about it, though, if you do begin to feel the strain. This is an extremely important find. It’s imperative that there be no question of professionalism regarding our part of the venture.”
As kindly as it was said, it was a warning, and Gaby recognized it as such. There could be no more conversing with beings no one could see but her.
Alien's Concubine, The Page 8
