by Jay Morris
“Lucy did you girls write this?” The girls laughed and Gina said
“Silly Gampa, she wroted it”
She pointed at the little gray alien looking up at him. The Doc had sat down with us a few minutes earlier and she asked
“But Lucy, how did the underling know how to write this?”
Lucy answered “I think it was because we played school and teacher last night in our dream.”
Gina proudly added “I was the Mrs. Principal.”
”And he had to stay in at recess!”
Lucy said accusatorily, pointing at one of the aliens who had the good graces to look at his feet after being pointed out for whatever infraction he had done in their shared dream school.
After that little bit of news, the writing not the detention, there was a long discussion with the girls about what a great game school and teacher was. That went well except Lucy insisted on being called Mrs. Lipmann after her pre-school teacher. Tucker was gentle with the kids, he always was and it always surprised me. The image of him spattered with blood, mercilessly killing those Da-Nah babies, and of him practically disemboweling Darnell, contrasted heavily with the old man on the floor talking to three kids barely out of diapers. It was unsettling to say the least. Santa Claus with a shotgun.
There was an issue that came up; Tang. We were out and Tucker didn’t know when or where we could get more. But Karen came up with a stop-gap. We went through our remaining MREs and took all the lemonade, pink lemonade, and raspberry powders we could find. In the end we had 43 packets. Tucker figured that would make about four gallons, enough for two tea parties a day for three days or so if they were careful. One thing I thought was funny was that as we were having these discussions every so often an underling would come to him and hand a piece of paper asking for Tang. By the sixth or seventh one he was starting to get irritated, by the 10th he was saying thank you through gritted teeth. This made Karen giggle then me then even Amy laughed and it prompted her to take the papers from Tucker.
How strange this was, so beyond our experience. I wondered if this was how soldiers in war live. One minute bored, the next wetting themselves in fear, the next over whelmed with rage or grief. We lost family and friends in brutal, violent ways but we had grown to accept that and continued to live, laugh and love. I guess that is just what human beings are good at.
There were three last items that were discussed. The aliens diet was first, it turned out the underling were pretty happy eating grass, green leaves even stinging nettles so until the first frost we were okay on that front. Second, Doctor Young Deer explained that she purposely slept near the kids and the aliens but there was no dream sharing for her. She also suggested that each of us do that too in case it was just her. Tucker agreed but declined the offer. I think he was afraid or ashamed of sharing his dreams. Lastly and as far as Tucker was concerned the most important, the location of the “disease” base and of Director 8, the sneaky one.
After that Lucy told Tucker that his name was no longer a naughty word in the underling “language”, and that they also called him “Gampa” half the time. Gina explained that the underling called Tucker, Amy and the Doc, “A-Dolts” (Doc said that it could have been worse but I wasn’t sure what she meant by that) and they considered the kids to be directors, but the verdict was still out where Karen and I fit in. By lunch time the kids were pretty tired of this so we decided that was enough. The look on the underling’s faces as they each stared at their Dixie cups of pinkish raspberry lemonade was hilarious. They were clearly sad it wasn’t Tang and clearly suspicious of this new fluid. They all watched as one was nominated as guinea pig, it might have been our original gray but I wasn’t sure. He or she took the first taste, then they squeezed their eyes tightly shut, their head trembled and they opened their mouth and stuck out their long bluish tongue like a baby who had just been given their first lemon wedge. Then it hopped back and forth on its chubby little feet and presented their cup for more. Success.
Day 41, Continued, Command Area, Vehicle 1-3
“Insistive-Statement-Factual-Composite :{
Re-designation (Colony-Ship 32-Director 1,Techician-32-16),
Re-designation (Technician 32-5, Colony- Ship 32-Director 1),
Command-Action-Offensive-Unauthorized FORBIDDEN. };”
The Supreme Director 1 slammed his fist onto the desk. He decided that the next Da-Nah who ignores Command Insistives will be executed. Something that had not occurred since the Da-Nah had first journeyed into the stars; nearly prior to recorded history. But this, this idiot, cost Da-Nah lives, lives they could not afford to lose. Director 32-1 had sent the technicians from three pods after a small number of Aggressives. He had sent an upgraded-Defender with them. But the forests were very dense and it became difficult for the Bio-tech to keep pace. The technicians were in single file following a worn trail. There was an explosion and an unknown projectile weapon shredded their ranks. The Aggressives fell upon them before they could recover from the concussive blast effect. It was a slaughter, the Technicians were no match for the monsters, by the time the Defender caught up with the rest of the patrol the Aggressives had slipped away into the forests.
The Da-Nah needed the bio-weapon and they needed it soon. An idea came to him and he touched the communication screen and it flicker to life.
“Insistive-Command Broadcast (Supreme Director 1, Directors 1-All),
Technician-Specialist-Micro-Life Locative-Modifier-Pod 1-(this),
Chronal delta (0.0).”
The Supreme Director 1 blacked the communication screen. By morning every single Micro-Life specialist would be here, with his team, and together they would put an end to the vile beasts of this world. He would sleep well that night.
Day 41, Continued, West Virginia Welcome Center.
“Permissive-Query-Broadcast-Transitive
Status-underling-we Logical-Conjunctive= (Negation-Locative-this, underling-we)”
“Statement-Factual Emotive-Apprehension”
“Permissive-Broadcast-Data-Dream-Logical-Conjunctive= (underling-we, Aggressive-Directors),
Reference-List-Enumerated= [Loo-C, G-Nah, Chuh-Ace],
Statement-Factual-Objective-Communication-Written
Logical-Conjunctive (underling-we, Indigenous-Life-Aggressive)
Initiate-Dream-Data-Stream-Compressed << - - - - - - - -”
And so it was that within 24 hours, the underling began to write notes in childish English to the fragile remnants of the human species all around the world.
Day 42, West Virginia Welcome Center.
In a morning meeting we decided that we should move to a new location, and by we I mean Tucker. We packed both vehicles, we were taking everything of value. There was some confusion with the underling who seemed to enjoy carrying things to the truck and then carrying them back inside, but once we got that straightened out it went pretty smoothly. The underling vocabulary was growing at an astonishing rate, apparently dream-sharing occurred at a pace that could be slower or faster that wall clock time. They learned most of the alphabet the previous night but Amy had to show them a couple of letters that Gina and Lucy had missed. They had numbers down but seemed upset that there were only ten. Apparently twelve is a far better number of numbers than ten, I didn’t get it but Tucker did so we lucked out.
Karen was keeping a tab on our supplies. I for one was dismayed at how far our ammunition and food had dwindled but at least we knew about it. We had two basic options, one was head North-West and try and find the military unit that the Major was looking for or second, head South-East towards Fort Benning near Columbus Georgia. Tucker was hopeful that we could find soldiers, heavy weapons, and explosives there if we didn’t find them on the way.
The underling seemed hell-bent to go South-East in order for Tucker to kill the bad Da-Nah who were trying to fabricate another biological weapon. It took a long time to figure out that the Da-Nah biologists from around the world had been re-located to that particular po
d.
We were only going to be traveling at night so we lined the bed of the truck with blankets, and sleeping bags for the kids and the underling. Tucker was worried about patrols but the underling felt that was not a risk, the some big cheese had ordered them all to stay home. I hoped that was true. I hoped it very, very much. After we were packed I had a chance to talk with Tucker, he was trying to estimate the size of the invasion given the information provided by the underling.
“One hundred landing ships worldwide, each had twenty pods or so. That’s two thousand pods, that’s eight thousand vehicles give or take” he said.
He was more or less talking to himself at this point.
“Each Pod has, what? Somewhere between 25 and 35 Da-Nah? That’s 70,000 of the white bastards and that’s worst case scenario.”
“And this means…?” I prompted.
“Let’s see, we alone have destroyed 10 vehicles in four pods plus two more possibles. How many Da-Nah you think?” he asked.
“No clue” I said then a moment later amended it “Maybe around 80 or so?”
Tucker nodded “Yeah John, I think you are right. Now how many underling are there you think?”
I thought about it then offered
“Well there are fewer underling than Da-Nah, seems to me, like maybe a dozen per pod?” “
So that would make 24 to 25 thousand underling worldwide.”
“Yep, that makes sense” I agreed.
Tucker looked at me,
“With the help of the underling humanity still might have a chance”.
I could not help but notice the smile on his face and the sparkle in his eyes. He was enjoying this, the mental arithmetic of lives lost. For him it was just another problem to solve, one where the appropriate application of force yields the desired outcome. Tucker was at times a cold heart-ed bastard.
So after that discussion we waited for night fall and the cover of darkness. When it finally came we started to mount up but I noticed Tucker talking to Lucy and Gina very quietly just before he lifted them into the truck, they both were nodding vigorously to whatever the old man was saying. I wondered if this was a “Gampa” moment or if he was up to something, probably the later I thought. The Doc and Karen rode driver and shotgun in the truck, me, Amy, the kids and a bucket load of underling in the back, once in we covered them all up with blankets. Seeing them bundled against the cold night air reminded me of a hayride I went on with my scout troop. I thought that was as close as these kids were ever going to get to a hayride and it made me a little sad.
That left Tucker alone in the Humvee. He would go first, we would tail him some distance behind in case of ambush. I could not help but reflect on the absurd nature of our trip and the goal Tucker had set out for us. One old man, two women, two teens-ish, three little kids and a dozen Tang loving aliens who seemed about as vicious as a ball of yarn; quite a formidable force there Tucker. I had the overwhelming feeling that none of us were going to live through this.
Day 42, Bed of Ford F150, 12:45 AM
In the world of shared dream each participant heard the others speaking as they speak, so Lucy heard English and the underling heard the language of the underling.“ Loo-C? Are you here yet?”
“Here I am!” Lucy said as she jumped down from a large rock to softly land next to a circular pool of water so clear it allowed a clear view of the strange fish swimming 10 meters below.
“Loo-C are we going to play teacher and school again?”
“Maybe later, Gampa asked me to ask the underling some questions.”
“Ooh, okay, we can try and answer them!” said the underling as several more appeared and joined them. There never seemed to be a shortage of comfortable places to sit and lazily munch away at delicious Pond Moss.
“Gampa wants to know..umm.. I forgot.” She said and a frown appeared on her face but Gina’s voice helped her out.“He wants to know if the underling ever fight, fought? Fighted? Fight with the big white ones.”
Another underling, a female holding a dream infant that the girls adored, said “The underling do not do such things, it would…hmmm…pain we in the dreamshare time. Much more painful than the pain of the body.”
“Oh that makes sense!” Lucy said.
Gina looked at Lucy, “I forgotted the other question.” This time the third human participant appeared, Chase, “Mr. Tucker wants to know about other people like us in other places. Will the underling help us find them?” “That’s right!” Gina affirmed.
“Finding friends for Tucker, we can do this” the little alien looked at the dark blue sky, “Wait, some of we are having written communication with people like you in places called Chimay and also in Wagga Wagga”
Both girls broke into laughter “Wagga Wagga!” “I want to live in Wagga Wagga” Lucy exclaimed.
“Is it near here?” one underling asked. “I dunno, maybe” Gina responded.
“What was the question?” another underling asked.
“Oh, of course the question, there are people like you in several areas near some of the Da-Nah pods” the first underling answered. Lucy and Gina were setting up the chairs and desks for school and teacher, a Lucy sized teacher chair and desk, complete with hall passes and a big jar of snickers bars were already in place.
Chase was still listening to the underling and he told him “That’s good I think.” Turning around he exclaimed “Hey! Who turned the pond into Tang?”
Day 42, Ford F150, 4:45 AM
The trip had been long and boring so far, we were creeping down highway 79 at a breakneck 30 miles per hour. For hours Karen and the Doc had rode in silence but eventually Doctor Mary Young Deer spoke,
“So I hear you are married.”
Karen was startled by the question and she laughed at herself.
“Sorry” the Doc said. “It’s okay I was just thinking, but yeah we are married.”
She said waving her left hand in the air like the Queen of England. “Nice”
“It’s borrowed but Johnny going to get me one as soon as he gets the chance.”
“I see”
There was another span of road silence when Mary spoke again
“So how old are you?”
“Thirteen, but I will be fourteen in 3 weeks or so, I’m not too sure about the date.”
Mary nodded, “Yeah, I understand. So how old is Johnny?”
“Almost thirteen.”
Mary laughed “A younger man, you go girl.” They both laughed at that. Karen shifted in her seat a little,
“Aren’t you going to tell me I’m too young?”
“Nope, people been getting together at your age for most of human history, course that was when the life expectancy was 35.”
“I’d love to see 35” Karen’s voice was sad and quite serious.
“Is that why you wanted to get married?”
“Yeah, partly, but I love Johnny, he is a really good guy and ...”
There was silence. “And what Karen?”
“It’s well, I want him, I want to be with him all I can.”
“That’s natural.”
“No, that’s not what I’m talking about, I mean two months ago he was riding his bike and playing with magic cards. Now he has killed monsters and people, lost his whole family except for Lucy and ..” she swallowed hard, “he is with Mr. Tucker and, well people die around him.”
“How is that Karen? Is he responsible?”
“No, no, nothing like that it’s just that Tucker doesn’t look at life the normal people do.”
Five more minutes of silence then Karen said
“You sure aren’t the quickest of conversationalists.”
Mary laughed “They call that living in Indian time.”
They both laughed again,
“So what do you mean Tucker doesn’t look at life like normal people do?”
“Well, it is kind of hard to explain, but you have seen him with the kids right?”
“Yeah, he’s good with them.
”
“I know right? Well he also kills without mercy, Johnny says he doesn’t hesitate, he strikes hard with no holding back and he doesn’t regret doing it either.”
“Hmmm, how does he handle loss?”
“To tell the truth Mary, not well, he cries and twice I’ve seen him go almost in a, hmmm what do you call it? Oh, like a coma or something, he doesn’t move or say anything he just sits there. It is spooky.”
Mary thought about it for a few minutes then said
“I think he is interesting.” Karen barked a laugh at that
“I’ll say, you saw what he did to Darnell right?”
Mary got quiet “Yeah I did. I really didn’t know Darnell that well but from what Amy told me, Darnell was on his way to kill Tucker.”
“Yeah, that’s what Johnny told me too, right before I screwed the living daylights out of him.”
Mary exploded in laughter,
“I have a faint impression that you call the shots in your marriage.”
“Oh, no. Not at all, we are even partners unless what he wants to do is stupid.”
Mary held her right hand up for a high five and Karen obliged.
Mary then leaned forward and said, it looks like Tucker is pulling off onto that police turn around. They pulled slowly in behind Tucker, there was a little gravel road that the cops used to use to set up speed traps, it worked perfectly to conceal us, at least from the air or unless someone was right on top of us.
When it was my turn I slept the predawn hours in the back of the truck and at some point Karen joined me, to awaken in the arms of someone you love is a great gift. Amy was up and was given a cooking lesson to Chase, the girls and the underling were nearby, wandering in and out among the trees and undergrowth. Kissing Karen on the head I left her sleeping and snoring softly. The day was the warmest in weeks and crystal clear.
I hopped down and found the little boys room, I was sure going to miss the mineral oil toilets of the welcome center. I found the cleaning kit in the Humvee then sat on the tail gate, disassembled my M4 and cleaned it carefully. I chucked to myself when Tucker first taught Billy Driscol and I about weapons and the necessity of keeping them clean. He was critical of the early M-16s, he called them firepower by Mattell and how they jammed all the time unless you kept the bolt carrier group spotless. He bitterly complained about the incredible reliability of the AK-47, the “preferred weapon of our adversaries” he said sounding like that movie marine Sgt. Hightower. I don’t think I had seen him that angry either before or since.
