by Saxon Andrew
Salud looked at Lukas, “What about that baby’s brain would give you away?”
Pat shrugged, “Lukas is the baby’s father.”
Salud pushed herself away from Lukas, “What!?”
Pat wave his hand at her, “That brings up another issue.” Lukas looked at him. “The night you encountered your neighbor being attacked by the three gang members. Didn’t you realize that if you got involved, it could get you noticed by the Stalkers? Even your escape pod told you to stay out of it. But you went in and killed two of the attackers and saved her from the third. You then went to their warehouse and killed the other four. Why did you do that?”
“She kept wailing all the way to her apartment that the gang members would be coming to kill her for what I’d done. I promised her I wouldn’t let that happen.”
“Once again, all of us predicted you would walk by and ignore what was going on. Why did you intervene?”
Salud looked at Lukas and said with her brow furrowed, “That was your doing?”
Lukas turned his face to her and nodded. She saw his sadness and wondered if she believed any of this. She jerked her head back to Pat when he said, “Did you know she was planning to trick you into becoming a father?”
“I didn’t at the time. She asked me to help her climb the stairs to her apartment and I carried her up. I didn’t know what was happening; I’ve never experienced anything like it and was swept away by how good I felt.”
“You didn’t know that was how this species mated?”
Lukas shook his head, “My pod told me later that she planned for it to happen with her fiancé.”
Salud lowered her head, “They WHAT?”
Pat waved his hand at her, “He is incapable of having children. They agreed that she would find a suitable…donor, and after telling him about Lukas saving her life, he approved her using Lukas to have a child.”
“I didn’t know what was happening. I was just swept away.”
“That is another issue.”
Lukas looked up, “What is that?”
“You said the experience was something you enjoyed immensely.” Lukas nodded. “And you were aware that every female that works here has been trying to get your attention to possibly repeat that with you. We predicted you would take advantage of at least four of them. Why didn’t you?”
“I knew that if I were having a relationship with someone and the Stalkers arrived, they would kill her along with me.”
Pat nodded, “That is to prevent anyone on this planet for knowing intelligent life exists elsewhere. But that would have never stopped a Welken Warrior. Which also begs the question about the death of that human named Tony. The Stalkers killed him. You defied prediction again. You should have celebrated that they took him and missed you. But you didn’t.” Pat stared at Lukas for a moment and said, “And you tried to help Miss Vazquez here by putting correct information in her work. If you’re so worried about not harming anyone, why would you help her develop the very thing that would bring devastation to this planet?” Lukas flinched at Pat’s remark and Pat leaned forward, “Don’t tell me you didn’t know what that equation was about?”
Salud looked at Lukas and saw his eyes narrow. After two minutes he looked at her with fear on his face, “You’re building a force field.”
She looked at him and shook her head, “Do not sit here and tell me you just solved that equation in your head that fast.”
“Is it true?” Salud stared at him and he grabbed her arm, “IS IT TRUE?”
“Yes…it’s true.” Lukas put his head in his hands and shook it. Salud looked at him, then at Pat who was no longer smiling, and then back to Lukas, “What’s wrong?”
Lukas raised his head and said, “I’ve interfered in the normal development of a primitive culture.” Pat nodded. “That carries a death sentence.” Pat nodded again.
Salud grabbed his arm and pulled his face around to her, “WHAT IS GOING ON?”
Lukas looked at Pat, “May I tell her?”
“You might as well. She needs to know what her actions will cause.”
Lukas looked at Salud, “I don’t know your name.”
“Salud.”
“Salud, I come from a civilization that’s located more than fifty thousand light years from here. It’s on the other side of the black hole in Sagittarius. We are an aggressive civilization and we’ve been at war with other civilizations for as long as I’ve been alive. Truth be told, every civilization in the Fellowship is constantly fighting someone. The Sentinels have imposed restrictions on what we can do in our wars. Only one city on a planet may be hit with a nuclear bomb and the rest of the planet must surrender. No primitive planet that doesn’t possess a stardrive may be approached by any member of the Fellowship. Once they develop a means of traveling the stars, any civilization in the Fellowship has the authority to invade the planet and take possession of it.”
“What do you mean take possession?”
Pat said, “Enslave the population and strip the planet of all natural resources.”
She looked back at Lukas and he nodded. “So you’re telling me that you violated some regulation that prohibits contact with any planet that doesn’t have star travel?”
“Yes. And there was no proof I was here until Kathy became pregnant.”
“Why didn’t you terminate that fetus to prevent us from being invaded?”
“That’s just it, Salud. If the civilization searching for me didn’t find me, they would have eventually sent the Stalkers here to see. Killing the fetus would not have prevented them from coming.”
“But they wouldn’t know for certain you were here.”
Lukas looked at Pat, “No they wouldn’t, but they would know the petroleum is.”
Pat shrugged, “Point taken. The damage would be done either way. Your actions now make more sense. We should have seen that.” Pat looked at them and said, “I think the two of you should be aware that every Myot, Welken, and pretty much all the other civilizations have their warships gathering just outside this solar system to take possession of the planet. There are over two million warships and the number is rising every second.”
Salud shook her head and looked at Pat, “But we don’t have a stardrive. We don’t have a way to travel among the stars.”
Lukas put his hand on her chin and turned her face back to him, “But if you develop a force field, that would also allow them to come take possession.”
She looked at Pat, “Is that true?” Pat nodded.
“As soon as you activated it, it would be seen and the invasion would start before your species could put it to use.” Salud’s face turned white and Lukas said, “Please tell me you haven’t actually built it yet!”
“I brought one here to give you tonight for helping me. I activated it the day before yesterday.”
Lukas looked at Pat and he nodded. “Then why haven’t they invaded?”
Pat shook his head again and said, “Can any of you tell me how this Welken is so much smarter than any I’ve ever seen?” Pat looked at them in silence for a long moment and then said, “You’ve violated our strongest prohibitions and in the worse way possible by giving a primitive culture technology they didn’t have.” Lukas lowered his head and nodded. “However, truth be told; I really like this language by the way; it can be so descriptive. Anyway, truth be told, she would have solved the equation within the year, so your violation, though real, is not as severe as you think.”
Salud shook her head, “I was going to give up.”
“But you didn’t. That equation would have haunted you until you solved it. I predict that you would have combined the two computers in your department and put them to work on it. They would have given you enough clues to solve it.”
Lukas looked at the Sentinel, “I’ll ask you again, are you here to kill me?”
Pat smiled and blew out a breath, “You know, the most ironic thing about this whole fiasco is that es
cape pod of yours.”
Lukas shook his head, “I don’t understand?”
“Now there’s a first. You removed all the files that made it keep you safe and do all it could to protect you.”
“It is the reason I’m still alive after all the time the Stalkers have been searching for me. I couldn’t allow it to be destroyed if it could escape.”
“That’s just it. It decided that it wasn’t going to escape without you. Every control that made that pod protect you was removed. Trust me we’ve looked, they’re all gone, but it chose to stay and defend you. It deliberately chose to stay. This was something we didn’t even attempt to predict; machines don’t have freedom of choice. But this one made a decision that is impossible. You did something to that machine that we don’t come close to understanding. That pod saved you by bringing you here and it is, once again, saving you now. We can’t force ourselves to eliminate you because of our curiosity about how this happened. You are no longer bound by our rules.” Lukas face showed his shock. Pat smiled, “However, the Stalkers are not bound by this decision. If they find you, they will kill you,” Pat looked at Salud, “And her.”
Salud looked at Pat, “How did they not see the force field when I activated it?”
“That’s the interesting thing. That force field will not show up on their scanners. The diamond that creates it is a form of carbon and the actual field resonates on the same frequency as the diamond. They are unaware that you have possibly developed the very thing that will be their undoing.” Pat paused, “That is, if you can evade the Stalkers; they are very good at what they do.” Pat took a pocket watch out of his vest and said, “Look at the time. I must be going.” He put the watch away and looked at them, “I’m going to cover you for another forty minutes. You may discuss anything you want but at the end of that time, you will be visible to the Stalkers again.” Pat tilted his head and looked at Salud, “I know what you’re thinking. You look at the two of us discussing things that are impossible and now you’re beginning to think, ‘Am I crazy. These two couldn’t possibly be aliens. They’ve just put on a big show’.” Pat extended his hand to Salud and said, “Take it.” Salud’s eyes narrowed and Pat smiled that huge smile again, “You won’t be harmed. Take it!” Salud reached over the table and took his hand. Pat smiled, “Can you feel it?” Salud nodded. “Touch my face.” Salud reached over and touched his beard with her other hand. “I’m here.” Salud nodded. In an instant, he winked out of existence. But Salud could still feel his hand in hers. She took her other hand and put it on top of the invisible hand and it went to her palm. But she could still feel Pat’s hand in hers. Then they heard, “Those that doubt will never see. I’m taking my hand now. I do hope you’ll keep us guessing. This had been the most interesting time I’ve had in more than ten thousand years.”
Salud felt the hand disappear. She looked at Lukas, “This is real!”
Lukas nodded, “Yes it is.” He put his head in his hands and blew out a big breath.
“What’s wrong?”
Lukas blew out another breath and looked at her, “I wasn’t kidding earlier when I said that no one had ever survived contact with the Sentinels. I knew he was going to kill me.”
“You stayed pretty cool.”
“I was hoping he wouldn’t harm you. He surprised me.”
“How?”
“I thought Sentinels could telepathically hear the thoughts of other beings.”
Salud shook her head, “If that were the case, he wouldn’t have had to come and ask all those questions.” She stared at him for a moment and then looked out the front glass, “You have a lot to teach me about this Fellowship.”
Lukas nodded and stood up, “We only have thirty eight more minutes of coverage; we’ve got to make good use of the time.” Lucas took her hand and pulled her up out of the booth, “Do you have a car?”
“It’s about fifteen minutes from here in a garage.”
“Well, it’ll take us more than forty go using public transportation. Get me to your car as quickly as possible.” Salud stared at him for a moment, stood up, and began walking quickly toward the front door. Lukas yelled to Bob, “Sorry, I have to go. I’ll explain later.” Bob raised his hand to stop him but he rushed out the front door following the Professor. What was going on? Lukas never acted irresponsibly.
Salud came out of the front door and started running across the street. Lukas fell in behind her and they rushed on a direct path to the MIT Faculty Garage. They cut six minutes and arrived at her car in nine minutes. Twenty-nine to go. The elevator seemed to take forever, but it finally reached the third floor and she ran out with Lukas right behind her. “Where are we going?”
“Calumet Street.”
“Which end?”
“The one closest to Hillside.”
Salud went down the ramp at a speed that actually concerned Lukas, “Isn’t this a little too fast?”
“Do you want to get there or not?”
“That’s why I said it.”
“This car is an IS BMW. It has the M suspension and I’m actually able to do it faster but I don’t want to run a risk. Just hang on and be quiet!” Lukas heard a gong start going off and Salud said as she came out of the garage in a controlled drift, “That’s telling you to buckle your seatbelt.”
Lukas was thrown from side to side and grabbed the belt and snapped it in the receiver, “This might slow me down getting out.”
Salud accelerated up Tremont Street and went through a yellow light at seventy miles an hour. The Police Patrol Car parked at the corner didn’t move. Lukas’s eyes widened and Salud said as she slid around the intersection of Hillside and Parker Street, “The Sentinel said he had us covered; I assume that means from everyone and everything.”
They suddenly heard, “That’s an astute observation Miss Vazquez.”
Salud shook her head and took another sharp turn at Calumet Street, “Where am I going!?”
“The top of the hill.”
“Oswald would have been faster. You should have told me!”
“I don’t see how. That house on the corner just ahead; pull around behind it.”
Salud turned the corner and slammed on the brakes as she slid into the small parking lot. Lukas already had the seatbelt off and started running toward the back of the house, “Come with me!”
Salud followed him and saw a brand new Corvette parked under the eve of the old house, “Nice car.”
Lukas opened the driver’s door and said, “It’s not a car, get in.” Salud rushed around to the passenger’s door but it wouldn’t open.
“WHAT IN TWELVE SHADES OF A LIZARDS BACK ARE YOU DOING!?!”
“Just open the door. I’ll explain after she’s in.” Salud heard Lukas and her brow furrowed a moment before the door opened. She slipped into the car and heard Lukas say, “Let me have what you brought me tonight.”
Salud stared at him and Lukas said, “Are you going to trust me or are we going to waste the remaining thirteen minutes?” Salud reached in her pocket and pulled out the small oval device. Lukas said, “Open the access to your converter.”
“What are you doing?”
“WE DON’T HAVE TIME, OPEN IT!”
“You know I no longer have to follow your orders.”
“No you don’t, but do you trust me?” Salud heard the voice arguing with Lukas and then heard a click. She looked behind her and saw the rear hatch on the Vette had popped up. Lukas got out of the car, ran to the rear, and threw the force field generator into the rear of the car. The hatch lowered and Lukas jumped back into the car, “What can you tell me about what I just put into your converter.”
“WHERE DID YOU GET THIS?”
“She built it.”
“Lukas, this could cause an invasion!”
“Pod, there are more Fellowship warships outside this planet’s solar system than you’ve ever seen. It appears the members have learned about this planet’s abundance o
f petroleum.”
“How do you know this?”
Lukas paused and said, “A Sentinel told me.” There was silence to the statement and Lukas said, “It appears your willingness to stay and take me with you so confounded them that they’ve given us a reprieve from their restrictions. The Sentinel has given me forty minutes of coverage before the Stalkers can see us again. We only have eight minutes left and Salud and I are going to have get out of here before time runs out. Now, this is important, can you use what I put in your converter?”
“Lukas, this force field she’s built is as far beyond what the Fellowship Warships are using as I am to her car. Their weapons will not be able to harm me.”
“Thank God.”
“I didn’t know you’d found religion.”
“I’m not certain if I have, but fate seems to be operating here. I need you to make a break for open space and get out of here?”
“I won’t go unless you go with me.”
“Pod, as long as the Stalkers think I’m on the planet, they won’t leave. I need you to draw them away.”
“And leave you here?”
“It’s my fault those warships are out there working for a position to take possession of this planet. The Sentinel has removed their restrictions from me; I have to stay and see if I can’t save this planet from the coming invasion.”
“It’s is mainly my fault for being here. I’m more responsible than you are, Lukas.”
“I know. But I can’t do anything with the Stalkers here.”
There was a moment of silence and the Pod said, “Put your wrist unit in the tray.”
Lukas took off the wrist unit and lifted the console cover. He placed the unit inside and closed it. Salud heard a hum and Lukas said, “What did you just do?”
“I’ve downloaded every file on how I was constructed. I know you could probably use the battleship’s files but I only have my own.”
“Pod, if you could get close enough, would your disruptors damage a battleship?”
