Second Moon (The New World Book 2)
Page 22
While the alien moved down the ramp toward Ross and Gabriela, they both heard a thought projection of happy thanks. Their old friend had just returned from visiting his father’s crash site of many Earth centuries before, and therefore felt an inner peacefulness at finally having the chance to do so. Then the alien approached Ross and did something that was completely unexpected. Reaching out with his open palm turned upward, he handed Ross the emblem and necklace that had represented so much of their collective past. Then both Ross and Gabriela received a sad thought, as their friend projected, “I must return to my home world now, and I don’t know when I will be able to come back here for another visit. In the event that we never meet again, I wanted to return this to you. I hope all goes well for you in the future my friends. May your species survive and flourish as it aspires to become a member of the vast galactic community.”
Knowing that a handshake simply wouldn’t do, Gabriela stepped forward to hug the alien. It was the first time that the alien had experienced such a thing, so he fired off a thought projection intended only for Ross.
Nodding in the affirmative, Ross replied, “Yes, that is normal for our species to behave in such a manner, especially the females. It tends to occur most when we experience certain emotions such as joy or sadness, but it can also be a way of expressing extreme fondness toward an individual. In this case, Gabriela is hugging you because she is very fond of you and is saddened that she may never see you again. You may think this strange, but I would like to do the same if you don’t object.”
After having done so, Ross put on the necklace and said, “On behalf of my species, I thank you for everything my friend. Safe travels to wherever the stars may take you.”
That night Ross sat with his immediate family and a few of the recruits on the nearby beach. He explained to Hank and Kristyn how this new world for them had only twelve months in a year as opposed to the sixteen months on their birth moon. Then he told them that they would never again need to endure an eclipse that lasted four days. He continued by adding that because of all the additional months on their former home world, six years back there were equal to just a little more than eight here on Earth. Accordingly, Hank was actually eight years old, and Kristyn was seven.
Nodding with comprehension, Hank then turned his gaze skyward. A moment later he bluntly stated, “Hey Ross. A few of the people living here told me that some of the star groupings have names. Was it like that when all of you lived here before?”
“Yes it was Hank. The stars can form many different shapes if you use your imagination, and we had names for lots of them. For example, those six stars forming an almost square shape with a handle to the left are called the Big Dipper, and that small group of five shaped like the letter “W” is known as Cassiopeia. That really big formation over there with the long swooping curve is called Scorpio, and that large group is the great hunter Orion.”
“Wow. That’s cool.”
“I think so too. Do you see those three bright stars in the middle of Orion that are almost in a straight line?”
“Yes.”
“Those are called Orion’s Belt, and the three stars just below them form his sword. Please try to always remember that, because you, Kristyn, and the twenty Mayans with us, were all born on a moon known as ₹-593-Ԅπ-2-2 that circles around that faint star next to the tip of the sword.”
Smiling with obvious delight, Hank nodded to confirm and said, “I’ll remember, I promise.” Then while pointing asked, “What is that thing around your neck Ross? I’ve never seen it before.”
Looking at his young brother, named in honor of the man who inspired Ross to gaze upon the heavens, he reached to touch the symbol and said, “Well Hank, my grandfather gave me this and the necklace when I was a boy not much older than you. His father had given the symbol to him when he was a boy, and before that the symbol had belonged to the father of my alien friend. I kept them safe for many years, and then my alien friend did the same. Now he has given them back to me, and I hope that someday you and other members of our family will continue to keep them safe.”
“That’s cool, but what does the symbol mean?”
“To me the symbol represents limitless possibilities. It’s a symbol of everything!”
Seated on the opposite side of Hank, Janet smiled while listening to the conversation between her two sons. Without warning, her peaceful moment was interrupted when she began to cough. Feeling her forehead, she looked over at both of her sons and said, “Well Ross, it looks like I’m paying the price for tending to your ailment so closely. My cough, and what feels like a slight fever, would imply that I have caught whatever bug has been making you feel so poorly.”
His most recent battle had been extremely challenging for Ross, but Janet and Dr. Halley finally managed to break his stubborn high fever. There had been much concern for several hours, as throughout that time they had needed to pour nearly a dozen buckets of ice over Ross’s body before his temperature and vital signs returned to normal levels. Once Ross had been stabilized, and then drifted off to sleep, Gabriela, Janet, Aurora, Hank, and even Tori Nobles, took turns watching over him.
Colt assumed the first watch after stating, “I swore a solemn oath many years ago to protect Ross, so respectfully, I will take on the majority of this task. I will not hinder any of you from providing comfort for him, but I must, as part of my own self-preservation, remain close by Ross’s side.”
The subject was never debated when Janet added, “You know it will be of little use to challenge my husband on this matter. His training as a secret service agent has made him fiercely loyal to the oath of protecting my son.”
For the remainder of the day, and then throughout the entire night, Colt never left the side of his former boss. He slept on a few occasions when someone else had relieved him, but never for more than an hour. For those who knew him, Colt’s actions came as no surprise. He had stood as a faithful sentinel for Ross throughout the years on ₹-593-Ԅπ-2-2, but the oath spoken of had occurred long before that on Earth. In all those countless times Colt had never showed any negative emotion, but this situation was different. When Janet came to relieve him for a break just after the first light of dawn, she reached up to wipe a tear from his cheek. Janet loved and admired the way Colt had always taken care of her eldest son, and knew that it was breaking his heart to see Ross in such a precarious state.
A few moments later, after Colt had fallen asleep, Janet heard Ross moan ever so slightly. She moved to his side with a wet towel for his forehead, and then smiled while breathing a sigh of relief when she saw his arm move a few inches under the covers. Privately, Janet had developed an ever growing concern that Ross might never awaken, but kept that horrific thought from Gabriela and everyone else. In spite of his favorable vital signs, Ross had remained motionless while sleeping for over eighteen hours since the fever had broken. Fortunately, Ross’s slight arm movement had now made her concern moot.
Suddenly, and with relative ease, Ross rolled onto his side facing away from Janet. Then he unexpectedly uttered, “Jessica, it’s time to wake up.”
Janet was flabbergasted, and wondered if she had really heard Ross speak or was it simply a hallucination based on her own over exhaustion and wishful thinking.
The answer to her internal question came quickly, as Ross added, “Jessica, wake up! We need to hurry, or we won’t have time for breakfast before Grandpa drives us to school.”
Janet didn’t quite know what to do, so she rubbed her eyes for clarity sake and began to lean in closer.
Then Ross, who was well accustomed to his little sister entering his room to wake him for school, became irritated. With no verbal response from her, Ross increased his tone and said, “Come on Jessica, quit fooling around and answer me. I want to tell you about a really weird dream I had last night.”
Leaning back to her former position, Janet realized that she was not hallucinating. However, there was now a new cause for concern over Ross’s condition
. Although pleased that Ross had spoken three times, with words that had expressed coherent thought, it was disconcerting to her that none of his statements had any actual bearing on the present reality.
She sat motionless through several seconds of awkward silence, and then took a glance around the room to see if either Gabriela or Colt had been awakened by Ross. Neither showed any sign of consciousness, so Janet decided she would take a chance. Leaning forward once again, she whispered a response of, “Ross, Jessica can’t hear you, because she isn’t with us.”
Ross rolled back over toward the soft voice, and then his eyes instantly grew larger. While shaking his head from side to side, Ross closed his eyes again in the hope of clearing away his vision of Janet. Unfortunately it didn’t work, because when he re-opened his eyes, she was still there. Then Ross gulped and, much to Janet’s surprise, asked, “Am I dead?”
Janet responded, “No you’re not dead, although it was touch and go at times during the last few days to be sure.”
“Well if I’m not dead, then this must be some sort of hallucination.”
After placing her right index finger upon her lips so that Ross would respond more quietly, Janet asked, “A hallucination, why would you say that?”
”Because you can’t possibly be here, you died almost four years ago!”
“Don’t be ridiculous Ross, I’m very much alive.”
“That’s impossible. I remember the day in 1957 when dad told me about the car accident that took you from us.”
Suddenly Janet realized that Ross was correct. Because he apparently believed that he and Jessica were still children living in central rural Texas, he really was having a hallucination. She once again glanced around to see if Gabriela or Colt had stirred, then tried to ascertain the depth of Ross’s hallucination. Maintaining her soft tone, she asked, “You wanted to tell Jessica about a really weird dream you had last night, would you like me to go get her?”
Ross stared at his vision of Janet for a long moment, and then loudly asked, “Jessica, are you awake?”
Once again there was no response, but the increased volume of his question had been enough to wake Colt. Shifting himself from fully horizontal to a seated position, Colt then stretched and inquired, “What’s going on?”
Janet turned toward her husband, and once again used her index finger to keep the room quiet. Then she repeated her question to Ross of, “Do you want me to go get Jessica?”
“I want to tell Jessica about my weird dream, but you can’t possibly go get her because you are not real!”
While maintaining her best bedside manner, Janet said, “I understand Ross. If you believe that I’m a hallucination, then you should close your eyes until Jessica comes to wake you?”
With that Ross closed his eyes, and Janet could see his body relax. Colt, who was now standing, shrugged his shoulders and inquired, “What’s going on with Ross?”
Janet moved toward him and replied, “This last bout of fever must have triggered something within him, because Ross is having a strange hallucination. I’ll wake Gabriela and keep her out of his direct line of sight, but can you do me a favor?”
“Sure, what do you need?”
“We need a young girl who might pass for a childhood version of Jessica to determine the extent of this hallucination. Ross says he wants to tell Jessica about a weird dream he had last night, so Kristyn could really help us out. Could you please go get her and Natiya as quickly as possible, and explain what is going on?”
“Alright, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Upon their return Janet instructed Kristyn on exactly what she needed her to do, and then moved close enough to Ross so that she could hear everything that would be revealed about the dream. Kristyn then began her task by softly pushing on Ross’s shoulder and continuously repeating the request of, “Wake up Ross, it’s time to get ready for school.”
Ross opened his eyes and smiled at the sight of the young girl. For the moment anyway, Janet’s plan had worked. Ross immediately said, “Good morning Jessica, how are you?”
“I’m fine thanks, how did you sleep?”
“Great, but I had the weirdest dream.”
“Was it scary?”
“Sometimes, but mostly it was just weird.”
“Well what happened?”
“I dreamt that when we grew up, we were still best friends. I married Patty and then became an astronaut, and you were a lawyer. Then later on, when all three of us were much older, I became the President of the United States.”
“You, the President?”
“Yep, but that’s not the really weird part of the dream. When I was an astronaut on a moon mission I met an alien from outer space, and years later he helped some of us escape to another world when it looked like Earth might be destroyed.”
“You’re right, that is a weird dream.”
“There’s more. When we were old we got to see mom.”
“What do you mean?”
“In my dream, mom didn’t die in the car accident. The aliens I mentioned had abducted her and kept her in captivity for a long time.”
“They didn’t hurt her did they?”
“No she was fine, and she didn’t get very much older while she was held captive either. She still looked as pretty as she does in that picture of the four of us next to dad’s bed.”
“Well that’s good, what happened next?”
“The aliens took us to live on a moon in a faraway solar system, and she came with us.”
“That sounds nice.”
“It was great and I’ll tell you more about it later, but for now we need to get ready for school.”
Janet had heard enough, and dried the tears in her eyes before advancing to Kristyn’s side. Then she softly said, “Ross, everything that you just told Kristyn is true. It wasn’t a dream, all of that really happened.”
Once again faced with an image of his mother Janet that he thought to be a hallucination, Ross became visibly rattled. Then he looked at the young girl posing as Jessica, and asked her, “Who is Kristyn?”
“I’m Kristyn!”
“No you’re not, you’re Jessica.”
Janet moved closer to Ross, and said, “It’s true Ross. This is not 1961, and you are not a boy any longer.”
Now looking even more scared by the current moment, Ross stated, “This is not happening. None of this is real.”
Janet’s bedside manner was beginning to wear thin, so she took a deep breath to collect herself. Then she said, “Ross, if you don’t believe us, then just pull one of your arms out from under the covers.”
After a reluctant moment, Ross complied with the request of his hallucination. What he saw instantly shocked him back into the reality of the present moment, as he was staring at the frail and wrinkled arm of an old man. After briefly scanning his surroundings for familiar artifacts that could perhaps refute the obvious, Ross returned his gaze toward Kristyn and said, “You’re not Jessica, who are you?”
“I’m Kristyn, don’t you remember me?”
Then Ross glared at Janet and said, “I’m an old man!”
From her unseen position some fifteen feet behind him, Gabriela replied, “Oh my dear husband. You most certainly are an old man, and you have been acting as stubborn as always.”
Janet breathed a sigh of relief when Ross exclaimed, “That sounded like Gabriela!”
Moving to his side, Gabriela replied, “Yes Ross, it’s me.”
The relief then took hold of Colt when Ross added, “We are all back on Earth, aren’t we?”
Now firmly clasping his frail and exposed hand, Gabriela leaned toward her husband and kissed him. Then she replied, “Yes we are Ross, and it’s because of you.”
Kurt possesses a spirit of adventure, which drives his thirst for experiencing new places and activities. He maintains a love for the great outdoors, and enjoys traveling whenever his schedule permits. One of his favorite activities is hiking in the clean mountain air, where t
he tranquil locations provide him with an opportunity to develop characters and storylines for his books. Kurt currently resides in Northern Nevada, where he and his wife have lived for more than a decade.
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Cover design, interior book design,
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Story concept by
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Table of Contents
Book Description
Title Page
Copyright Information
Other Books By Kurt Winans
Acknowledgements
Second Moon
01: Forward To Yesteryear
02: Tales Of Decades
03: The Unveiling
04: Marbles In The Darkness
05: One Giant Leap
06: Base Camp
07: A Restless Night
08: The Valley Of Fatigue
09: Divided Procession
10: Reunited
11: Long Thin Lines
12: Orbital Mechanics
13: Cornerstones
14: The Shadow
15: Enlightenment
16: Faith In The Past
17: The Black Void
18: Daylight
19: The Neighbors
20: The Internal Clock
21: Damsel In Distress
22: The Sacrifice
23: The Threshold
24: Progress Report
25: Evolution
26: Magic Number
27: Lessons Of Transition
28: Nearly Retired
29: The Recruits
30: The Manifest
31: Ring Around The Marble
32: New Earth