Princess Grace of Earth

by A K Lambert

  Janet looked into her face, clearly seeing her anxiety. She grabbed her arm lightly but firmly. ‘Let’s go to my room. We need to talk.’

  When they arrived in Janet’s room, she sat Amanda down on the sofa and went to the drinks cabinet and poured herself a scotch. Amanda declined.

  Janet sat down across from her. ‘We both have an interest in Jon O’Malley. I’m intrigued to know what you know, and you’re desperate to know what I do. We can skirt around the subject, or we can cut straight to the chase. I’m willing to go first and tell you what I know. You can decide then what, if anything, you want to tell me.’

  Amanda thought for a moment. This was getting out of her comfort zone. She needed help. ‘Can I phone my mother? Can she listen to what you have to say?’

  Janet’s look was surprised, but she composed herself. ‘Fine,’ she replied.

  Amanda phoned her mother.

  ‘Hi, darling. I was just dropping off. Can this wait until tomorrow?’

  ‘No mother, it can’t. I’m with Janet Kilkenny, CIA’s Assistant Deputy Director for Science & Technology. I’ve helped her out today, here in South Africa, with some Mandarin translations. Over dinner tonight we have, somehow, touched on to the fact we both have an interest in Jon, and it is obvious something is amiss. Janet was just about to tell me what she knows, and I asked if you could listen in. I’m worried about him.’

  Ann was now, of course, wide awake. ‘Yes, Mandy. Are we on speakerphone?’

  ‘We are now.’ Amanda touched a couple of buttons.

  ‘Hello, Janet. We’ve never met, but my husband mentions you often. He is certainly an admirer of your work. I’m intrigued. What is this all about?’

  ‘Hi Ann,’ Janet replied. ‘Thank you for those kind words. I’m happy to talk freely, as long as we all agree that what is said here doesn’t leave these four walls, so to speak.’

  ‘Agreed,’ Ann confirmed.

  ‘Several years ago I was on a sabbatical from work, looking after my terminally ill mother in Ireland. I had plenty of time on my hands, so I set up a mini observation station in my parents’ attic. Being on the foothills of Carrauntoohil, nighttime clarity was pretty good. I’d previously been on loan to NASA studying NEO’s.’ Janet paused to assess Ann’s knowledge.

  ‘I’m aware of NEO’s,’ Ann said.

  Janet continued, happy that Ann, probably through her husband, had some basic knowledge. ‘Anyway, I won’t go into too much detail, but I came across a shadow on an asteroid that I later discovered could have been a UFO.’

  ‘What year are we talking about?’ asked Mandy.

  ‘It was about two years ago, 2011,’ Janet said. ‘Whatever it was, I tracked it to Ireland. It was right there on my doorstep, so off I went to do some amateur sleuthing. I’ve never had any definitive proof, but I’m sure I’ve identified at least one, possibly two of the occupants of the vessel, and I’m nigh on positive they are now travelling with Jon O’Malley.’

  ‘Oh Mother, they’ve found him!’ Amanda was trying to hold it together but was feeling the strain.

  ‘Steady, darling. Let me think a moment. Ann paused for a good thirty seconds, before replying, ‘Thank you, Janet. Thank you for your honesty.’ She paused again, then decided. ’I think we need to tell you our story.’

  ‘Back in 2000, my husband and I were selected by a group of aliens who were on the run from their war-torn planet in the Alpheratz system.’

  Janet’s eyes lit up in amazement. She looked up at Mandy, who silently acknowledged the statement with a nod.

  ‘They were looking for a sanctuary, somewhere to hide their princess until such time that it would be safe to return home. They are technologically more advanced than we are, but are a peaceful race that has been trying to broker peace with their neighbours for many years. We helped them settle on a remote estate in Ireland. There were, or should I say are, eleven of them. The Princess, who we named Grace, is the same age as Amanda. One of the final selection criteria was that they wanted Grace to have a friend. They befriended a local boy—Jon. Unfortunately, one of the Vercetians—that’s how they refer to themselves—was an undercover spy for the Trun—their enemy—who made an early attempt on Grace’s life. The attempt was thwarted, but Mandy and Jon discovered Grace’s true identity. They’ve been friends ever since.’

  Janet whispered to Mandy, ‘I was never one hundred percent sure, but I always hoped I was right.’

  Ann continued, ‘They never identified the mole, but about eight years ago a message orb went missing, and the Vercetians knew their location had been compromised. They set up this second residence here in Cork, to relocate to upon detection of an enemy vessel.’

  Ann chuckled softly. ‘You, Janet Kilkenny, in your attic in Ireland, managed to find a space ship that their advanced technology couldn’t.’

  ‘They have an escape plan. Having become fond of our world and its inhabitants, they don’t want to be the cause of Earth becoming a battleground. If the Trun come for Grace, they’ll send a battle cruiser. I think we can assume they will be coming by the advance party already here. I just hope the surveillance system in our solar system gives them us early warning of its arrival. They plan to leave the planet so that the cruiser follows them. If they leave now, the Trun ship will still search Earth, which wouldn’t be a good thing. This way they will draw it away. Jon is in danger. They are obviously using him to find Grace, and may have already succeeded.’ Ann stopped to give Janet time to digest everything.

  Amanda, who had refrained from interrupting her mother’s monologue, spoke up. ‘You need to help us, Janet. You need to help them and Jon. They’re good people.’

  ‘Would you like to meet them, Janet?’ Ann asked, taking the initiative. ‘Can you fly to Cork tomorrow? I can meet you there and introduce you to Douglas, their leader.’

  Chapter 36

  A Change of Plan

  Earth. The Republic of Ireland - 2013, Saturday

  * * *

  Janet and Amanda arrived at Cork Airport the next evening. She had used Henry again to arrange the charter of a private jet from Durban directly to Cork. Henry duly obliged, but not without a little poke at her. ‘Is Madame off to check out the quality of the Guinness again?’

  The drive from Pietermaritzburg to Durban was a quick one hour trip along the N3 in a borrowed embassy car. The flight made one refuelling stop at Casablanca in Morocco. As they landed, Janet raised her glass of orange juice to Mandy and said, ‘Here’s looking at you, kid.’ Mandy gave her a blank stare. ‘No?’ She continued, ‘How about “Of all the airports, in all the towns, in all the world, we had to land here.” Yes?’ Mandy wondered what she was on about and smiled meekly back at a forlorn looking Janet.

  Her mother had told Mandy to return to Cork with Janet. ‘We need to sit down and decide how we respond to this development. We must assess any danger to Jon. They’ve been with him for two years, so I doubt a couple of days will make a difference.’

  Mandy had strongly disagreed with her mother. ‘I should be with him. If they know about Jon, they know about me. It would be quite natural for me to visit him, and I can assess the situation myself, and maybe even warn him.’

  She had made a compelling case, but Ann was insistent. Janet had chimed in with her agreement of her mother’s assessment. ‘Let’s discuss it. If sending you back in there is the right thing to do then fine, but let’s have some backup with you. I’ll keep the jet on standby when we get to Cork.’

  Her mother was concerned about her. ‘I know you’re worried darling, but we must have a coordinated plan of action.’

  Mandy reluctantly agreed. She had seen little of Jon the past few years, as their lives had moved in different directions, but the danger he was now in had cemented the fact that she couldn’t imagine a life without him being some part of it.

  It was a long journey back to Cork, but Amanda had no shortage of stories to tell Janet about the Vercetians. She told her in detail about their escape from
Preenasette, the two princes who were despatched to other destinations in the Milky Way, and the attempt on Grace’s life when they had first met. Janet was engrossed and couldn’t get enough information about them. She was awestruck at the thought of other races out there travelling between the stars. They had so much to learn. She kept asking Amanda about every little detail. The appearance modifying brooch was something she would love to have.

  Janet was also fascinated with the history of the war between the two nations. Mandy tried her best to explain it. ‘Grace did tell Jon and me all about it one rainy afternoon.’

  She told Janet about the physiology of the Trun and the Vercetians being practically identical, but that their cultures and philosophies had followed very different paths. ‘The Vercetians, Grace’s people, had the more fertile and temperate land. Life was easier, giving a lot more time to develop in the sciences and arts. Whereas the Trun had a hard and bleak existence and were a tough, but also a resourceful people.’

  ‘During the pre-industrial period, a healthy balanced trading relationship existed between the two nations. The Verceti traded in exotic foods, spices and fabrics, and the Trun traded in precious stones, minerals and coal from their extensive mining industries. Technological advancement proceeded through the industrial era into the computer age with little more than minor military skirmishes and trade embargoes coming between the two nations.

  ‘The serious troubles started after the advent of space travel. The Vercetians had the technology for this next phase of their evolutionary development but only limited natural resources. On the other hand, the Trun had an abundance of natural resources but lacked the technology. The planet’s early ventures into space proceeded with an unstable alliance between them, but the distrust was increasing. The Vercetians were becoming more secretive with their technological advances and the Trun with their development of precious metals. When the Trun developed a material that would significantly revolutionise space travel— Boron Metal Matrix Composite—the advantage shifted to them. Boron MMC used a continuous fibre reinforcement that made it strong. But its advantage in space travel was its thermal properties. With hardly any linear thermal expansion over a 900degC range it was capable of handling all of the stresses that ultra high acceleration could throw at it.

  ‘The first war saw the Vercetians attacking Trun Rizontella and commandeering one of their major mining and development facilities. For four years they used the Trun miners to extract the raw materials they needed and stole the MMC manufacturing secrets. Only when the Vercetians discovered the same raw materials in a remote part of their own country did they leave the Trun manufacturing facility. A state of war continued between the two nations for the next ten years.

  ‘During this time, there was a major rebellion within the Vercetian population, most of whom were abhorred by and ashamed of those actions. The government, previously administered by corporate-affiliated greedy politicians, was replaced with the leader of the rebellion, Almola Camcietti, as the first head of a ruling council. In the next few years, a plan was crafted to form a council that would keep this situation from ever happening again. They would elect a new member every ten years, and every time as councillor was elected, the eldest sitting member would retire. A system was put in place to train replacements for the outgoing elder. Selected at birth, they would spend forty years being trained by a Life Team. A calling, to ensure their leader’s number one priority was the well being of the Vercetian people. This system of ruling continues, with some further refinements, to this day.

  Janet and Amanda made their way into the terminal where Ann was waiting for them. With her was a short, stocky man with spiky hair. He gave Amanda a bear hug, then held out his hand to Janet. He introduced himself as Douglas Faulkener.

  Mandy and her mother smiled at each other as they watched Janet trying to study him without appearing obvious.

  ‘Come on, let’s go. We’ve got a taxi waiting outside,’ Ann said.

  A fifteen-minute taxi ride got them to a large detached residence that would have once housed an affluent family and now acted as Grace’s Cork home, and where the full Life Team would evacuate to on detection of a Trun ship.

  Gwyneth, Katie, and Mr. and Mrs. Shaw welcomed them into the large dining room and suggested they sit down at the table. Mr. Shaw brought in tea and two plates of superb looking cupcakes.

  Everyone chatted for a couple of minutes before Grace strolled into the room, totally unmodified and looking serene in her blue splendour. Janet’s face was a picture, exactly the dramatic entrance that Ann had planned with Douglas and Gwyneth.

  Grace and Amanda made a beeline for each other. They hugged and kissed and started talking excitedly about each other’s appearance. Grace released Amanda and turned to Janet, her tone now quite formal. ‘Welcome Janet Kilkenny, CIA’s Assistant Deputy Director for Science and Technology. Please accept my sincere apologies for this staged introduction. But it’s not quite finished yet,’ At this prompt, all of the Vercetians touched their brooches, and a crescendo of blue coloured the room. ‘Welcome to our little piece of Verceti on Earth.’

  An hour later and things had quietened down.

  Douglas, Gwyneth, Princess Tauriar, Amanda, Ann and Janet were sitting around the table. The Vercetians had reset their brooches and assumed human form. The last hour had been spent casually discussing a multitude of different things, ranging from diet and differences in physiology between the two species to general security and—to Janet’s delight—some of their advanced technology. But now it was time to discuss the matter in question.

  Ann kicked it off. ‘Janet, I told you yesterday about the plans Douglas has regarding their escape from Earth. He has informed me today that those plans need reconsidering. There have been some significant developments over the last forty-eight hours that now need to be factored in. I’ll let him explain what’s been happening.’

  ‘Thank you, Ann.’ Douglas’ elbows were on the table with his hands clasped just below his chin. ‘Our plight has taken a sudden and very disturbing turn for the worse. We have detected a Trun battle cruiser on the periphery of your solar system. It’s just a matter of days before they reach Earth.’ He looked apologetically at Ann, conscious she was unaware of this turn of events. ‘That’s not all. We have also discovered that our Trun mystery friend has sabotaged the guidance system of our sphere.’ He went on to explain that it could have been done anytime during the past year, as the artificial intelligence controlling the shield was no longer active, having been relocated to their Cork residence. ‘We’re still checking, but it is feasible it could have been done remotely.’

  ‘Are you assessing the damage?’ asked Janet

  ‘We have Helen, our scientist and Peter, our pilot at the site. I’m expecting a report imminently,’ Douglas replied. ‘We’re desperate to get it working before they arrive.’

  No one spoke.

  ‘So, there’s nothing further to discuss until that report comes back,’ Amanda said, getting restless. ‘Can we talk about Jon now?’

  ‘Yes, I think so,’ said Ann. Douglas nodded.

  ‘Are we sure that these associates of Jon’s are from our world?’ Gwyneth asked.

  ‘I’m sure Ann has already told you about my little tracking project that first located their ship,’ Janet said. ‘With the help of a professor friend with access to one of the USA’s prominent university’s facilities, we tracked its route to the Gearagh, a submerged glacier woodland and nature reserve just north of here. I never found out where they had landed but was pretty sure I found them.’

  ‘What was strange about these people you suspected were the vessel’s occupants?’ Gwyneth asked.

  ‘Well…’ Janet looked around the table, suddenly aware that her story seemed weak. ‘The day they arrived, they said they had come from Cork. According to the hotel manageress, they had no car, and the only bus to the town had broken down fifteen miles away on its way to Cork.’

  ‘Their clothing was
out of place—big city suits, and they turned up with no luggage.’ She looked around the table seeking acknowledgement of her interpretation of the facts. All she got was pleasant smiles. She continued, ‘We both saw the boy the following day after they had checked out of the hotel, in a casual outfit. Had he bought new clothes? Where was his suit? They didn’t know anyone in the village; it was their first time there.’

  Janet pushed on, ‘And at the Gearagh, he disappeared by the lake. Then a strange woman appeared, literally out of the bushes, in smart clothing, wandering aimlessly, and then she vanished too—at the same spot. A week later I read about a woman who went missing from the town on her way home from work. The photo in the newspaper was the spitting image of the strange woman by the lake.’

  ‘It does all seem a bit odd,’ said Ann. ‘Anything else about them, Janet?’

  ‘I got their names. Robert Smith and Thomas Jones.’ She threw her hands in the air. ‘Who’d choose those names? I never heard anything about Thomas Jones again, but two months later Rob Smith was on the back page of my dad’s local paper, having signed for the Fortune Team—Jon’s team. Deeper in the article, the reporter stated that he’d won two local races to impress the team principal, but had no cycling track record before that, that anyone knew of.’ She shrugged. ‘Nothing overly strange about that, but if you put it into the context of an alien trying to get close to Jon, it all makes sense.’

  ‘You’ve got to agree there’s a lot of strange in these facts,’ Janet appealed for anyone to show some moral support.

  Finally, Douglas said, ‘I think you present a very compelling case, Janet. I, for one, believe you came across a Trun spy ship, and that this Rob Smith is cycling with Jon with a secret agenda.’

  For the next few hours they tried to thrash out a solution to the two main problems they faced.