Alien Caller

by Greg Curtis

  And so they ate their dinner in silence and then sat out on the garden seat and watched the sun slowly set over the distant hills beyond the lake, all in silence. Conversation was limited to only those things that were routine and insignificant. Things they could do on automatic. Refill the coffee cups, wash the dishes and so forth.

  The TV that night, mainly a sports show and a comedy, they watched together but again almost like zombies. The sporting highlights failed to capture their attention, and they failed to find anything to laugh about in the sitcom that followed. And so it would have stayed, until David’s training finally returned to him, with the quiet chimes of the kitchen clock. Nine bells, bed time. Weird as it was, for a brief while he suddenly found some worth in the lessons he'd had drummed into him as a raw recruit.

  A soldier, in a strange land, can never allow himself to be off guard. He had to be alert, mentally prepared for anything, no matter what the world threw at him. There could be no relaxing. No giving in to panic or doubt. No giving in period. Face your fears, deal with your doubts, and think your way through the unknown. So his instructors had taught him, and so he finally remembered their lessons. Even if it had taken the entire day.

  They were having a baby. Period. It didn’t matter that it was impossible or that it made no sense. It was happening, so deal with it. The baby might be perfect or she might have problems. Again, face it. There was nothing they could do about it except accept it. Face it, move on.

  And they had to move on. He finally understood that sometime during the comedy. They had to get past this and carry on with the mission. Which was to have the most perfect baby they could. That meant doctors and diet, proper exercise and no stimulants. From that moment forward David understood that. This was a mission they were on, and like all missions, it had to be carried out perfectly. Failure was not an option. Fear and doubt was irrelevant. Only the mission counted.

  He looked to Cyrea to tell her that, and then saw the glazed look in her eyes. She still hadn’t reached that stage. It was his job to get them through this. Having spent the entire day in some sort of shock, it looked like she was going to go to sleep the same way. David decided he had to crack them out of it. They’d already spent the day as though concussed. He didn’t want to go to sleep the same way.

  “Love, bed time.” He didn’t give her a chance to protest. Not that she would. She barely even noticed as he turned off the TV. He wasn’t sure she’d really noticed it when it was on. He hadn’t. It didn’t matter, as he led her back to the bedroom, and helped her undress. He even tucked her in before turning the lights off and climbing in beside her.

  Normally, he wouldn’t have to do anything like that. They would have started groping long before, and if they were lucky, they’d have made it to bed an hour or more before, and would have been making out like teenagers ever since. But this wasn’t a normal night. He still wanted her as any man should, but right then he was still too confused. There were still too many other thoughts running around in his brain, much as he tried to cope with them.

  Instead he just held her close, taking comfort in her touch, and hoping she took the same. He lay beside her, his head on her breast, one arm under her waist, the other gently stroking her stomach in awe. The promise of things to come. Joy and terror all wrapped up together. It was a difficult time for him just then, being so close to the source of all his confusion; of hers too. But slowly he regained his control. He needed it. They both did.

  “Love. We have to talk.” Probably not the most intelligent thing he’d ever said, but it was enough. Cyrea stared at him, saw the determination in his eyes, and accepted it. She nodded slightly, giving him permission to carry on, listening.

  “Cyrea. You remember when we talked all those times about not being able to have a baby? We told ourselves we were happy as we were, and that it was enough. But we were lying. I wanted a family then and so did you. If perhaps in some way someone up there listened and heard us, and gave us what we asked for, then I think perhaps we should just be grateful.”

  “I am grateful. I just never expected it, because I knew it wasn’t possible. And it’s not. It’s some sort of practical joke.” He stopped her with a kiss, before she ran on into a panic. The same panic that had kept threatening to overcome him all day.

  “Love, I beg to differ. A whole fleet of doctors beg to differ. And the baby in you, our daughter, she really begs to differ.” He kissed her still flat stomach, gently but insistent, reinforcing what the doctor had told them; that she was pregnant.

  “We both saw the monitor and you can’t deny it. She’s there, inside you. Our very own daughter. Let’s just accept it. It doesn’t matter whether it’s possible or not. It’s happening. We have a daughter on the way and a new mission. First we’re going to have our baby, and then we’re going to be parents.” He tried to put as much certainty as he could find into his voice, and perhaps it was enough as Cyrea moaned her acceptance.

  “But I can’t be a mother.” The shock in her voice was terrible to hear. He knew she had not expected to be a mother, not since her time had passed to be with one of her own people, and she had long ago accepted it. Much as he had. Being with him and making love had done nothing to change that certainty for her, while he had simply never really thought about it.

  “You’ll be a great mother, and it’s not a choice. I’ve never been a father before either, and quite frankly I’d given up all thought of such a thing. But now not only am I getting to meet people from another world, not only have I been granted another chance at love, but I’m finding out I’m going to be a dad. Thank you.”

  “It scares me, just like it scares you. But I also remember our first few weeks together, and the way we managed to turn secret passion into open warfare. In time we got through that. And the results ever since have been wonderful. This is the same. Again we’re both afraid, but that’s not important. The only thing that matters is that we’re going to be parents. We have to be the best parents we can possibly be.”

  “But it’s still not possible. It’s got to be some sort of mistake, or worse.” Her thoughts like his, just kept returning to that same impossibility. He had to snap her out of that vicious spiral.

  “Cyrea. Do you want this baby?” She stared at him as if he’d gone mad, and he knew she wanted her. It was just that they both knew it couldn’t be happening.

  “So do I.” He kissed her gently. “I very much want our baby. I love her mother, and I love her.”

  “Just like you, I’m terrified the child’s not going to survive, or else have some horrible problem. But I want this child. Our child. I really do. I have no idea how this is happening, or why, but I don’t care. The only thing that matters now is that we’re going to have a daughter. We must prepare for the mission.”

  “We’re not going to war soldier.” She was just reacting to his tone he knew, sensing almost that he was giving her orders, which in truth he probably was. But if that was what she needed right then, then that was what she was going to get.

  “Oh yes we are Love. We’re going to war with a brand new enemy. Our own doubts, and fears, our ignorance. Things which could make us less than the best parents we can be. We have a baby to protect and raise. And there’ll be a six or seven month lead in to the war, followed by a life long campaign. Make no mistake love, this is a war and we will win it. We start now.”

  “Yes General.” Finally there was some humour in her voice.

  “That’s Major to you Love, and insubordination in the ranks will not be tolerated!” He finally heard the first hint of a giggle from her. “In the morning we’re going back to the doctors, to get their advice. Then we start on the exercise programme, diet, parenting classes and so on. Everything they tell us to do.”

  “You mean I do.”

  “Rank does have its privileges Private!” She poked him in the ribs as he no doubt deserved, and more or less had expected.

  “All right, I mean us. I’ll do your diet and exercises with you,
if they’re humanly possible. And we’ll go to the parenting classes together. I want to be there when she comes into the world. I want to hear her speak, and watch her take her first steps. And when she’s old enough I want to teach her to play baseball.” And she’d be good too, he knew. With maybe his strength and height and her mother’s speed and flexibility, she should be unstoppable.

  “Baseball? If you’re going to teach her human sports couldn’t it at least be basketball? I mean, baseball is so boring. All they do is sit in their little sheds, and wait while someone else throws a silly little ball three or four times at someone with a bat. And then they chew and spit all the time. It’s so dirty.” Cyrea and he had spent numerous hours discussing their worlds and in particular sport. Baseball was something they were never likely to agree on. But that very disagreement had just become worth a fortune as it took her mind off the impossibility of it all.

  “Well I like it, and I know she’ll like it, so you’ll just have to watch. Besides it’s got to be better than that fugue game that your people play. I mean sure they seem to run around a lot, and the ball does go through a hoop, but there are no rules.” Cyrea had brought home a disc of the game and they’d spent an evening comparing it to Earthly sports, and finding little common ground.

  Fugue was played with an unbalanced soccer ball, which was thrown through any number of hoops; the square court was dotted with them. But that was as close as it got to any game he’d ever imagined. The ball flew in strange patterns because of its off centred mass, and there were no teams. Instead it was a game played by twenty players, each acting alone, but always teaming up into pairs or threes at critical moments. As one went for a throw at a hoop, one or two others might spontaneously stop everything and try to help them, thus sharing the points. Then when you added in the complication that there were three balls on the court at any one time, three referees, and the fact that the hoops were also not circular, it made his brain tired just trying to understand.

  “She’ll like fugue, and I’m sure she’ll work out the rules easily enough, unlike her slow witted father. And after she’s played it a few times, well baseball will just seem like a bad memory.” Finally he could hear some laughter in her voice, just a hint, but it made his heart sing.

  “Why don’t we let her decide? And when she chooses baseball as the ultimate sport, you can cook and clean in the kitchen for a month.” If there was one thing Cyrea wasn’t dedicated to, it was the kitchen, which worked out well enough since he enjoyed cooking.

  “But when she chooses fugue, as she surely will, you get beds and bathroom for a month.” Which was his weakness. Before Cyrea had come, he’d never done any more than pull the bed together roughly, and the bathroom was something he left until the grime forced him to deal with it. Typical male.

  “Deal.”

  “But what if she’s got problems?” Which was the other half of the nightmare. That the baby would be a freak, or deformed, or simply would not survive.

  “Love, this baby is a miracle. For me and for you. And I choose to think of her as a gift from above. A present to say that even though I haven’t done everything I should have in this life, I’ve done enough. So if the baby’s already a miracle, I have to believe she’ll be perfect. After all God doesn’t do half miracles.” Despite her fear there was logic in what he said as well as love and she had to listen.

  “Besides, they said she was healthy. But even if she does need help, your doctors can fix nearly anything. Look at me. They put me back together after I looked like I’d been hit by a train. Twice. If they can do that, they can do this too. So let’s just try to be positive. I want this baby, and I want to be the best father I can be, and I want to be your husband.”

  “You are my husband. We don’t have ceremonies and pieces of paper like you, but the first day we chose to make love, we became man and wife in your terms. And the union was witnessed meaning all my people now accept us as a couple. Many may not think it was wise, but they accept it. And we never chose to think about contraception. So in seven months or less, we will be parents.” And then she stopped, and he could see her thoughts moving in circles as she thought about what she’d just said.

  “Oh my Lord. We’re going to have a baby.” She just choked it out, finally knowing the truth, if only because she had finally heard herself say it.

  “Yes, we are.” He kissed her firmly on the stomach once more. “Thank you.”

  “What do we do?”

  “Exactly what I just said Private. Were you not paying attention to your commanding officer?!” He used his best drill sergeant major-with-piles voice, and got another giggle out of her. “First we say thank you to God for making this miracle happen. A very big thank you, and maybe ask him or her for a brother or sister later, when you’re up to it. Then we find out everything there is to know about having babies for both humans and Leinians. By the time she’s ready to come out into the world we will be the most clued up parents on Earth.”

  “Brothers and sisters?” Again he managed to shock her out of her panic, though this time by accident. He smiled.

  “If a miracle can happen once, why not two or three times? And she’d be lonely without a brother or a sister. Besides, I thought you’d like a bigger family.”

  “I, …. would.” She stared at him doubtfully.

  “Well it looks like we can have one. As many children as we want.” He smiled carefully at her and was rewarded with her somewhat worried stare.

  “And ahh, how many is that?”

  “Well it’d be nice to have our own baseball team!” He smiled to let her know he was only kidding, and for the first time managed to draw one back from her.

  “Not baseball again!”

  “Well I thought it’d be easier on you than fugue. But if we must then I suppose, twenty kids it is, plus extras.” Cyrea’s eyes practically popped out of her head at the thought, but there was finally some laughter in her face. She was still worried. So was he. But there was hope.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  The next morning they were at the clinic early. They hadn’t slept well, they were simply too nervous. They hadn’t eaten well either. For the first time Cyrea felt nauseous, the result of tension rather than morning sickness, and David was feeling a twinge of nausea as well, something to do with stress.

  But the doctors were waiting for them and smiling. That more than anything else reassured them. Having a fleet of doctors was good, but having them smile was better.

  This time they weren’t asked to strip, which was a blessed relief for David. Instead they found themselves hustled into the surgery at double time, sat down in the only two chairs in the room, and then shown a movie. But this was a movie like no other. It was a computer recreation of their own daughter. They saw her in the womb as she was, and listened as the doctors pointed out all her good points. Then they saw her growing up, getting bigger and bigger in the womb and then finally popping out and beginning to grow up.

  She was beautiful. The image of the daughter they were expecting was beautiful, and she took their breath away. They held hands, unable to contain their excitement when they saw her, and they barely heard the voices around them.

  As the doctors had told them the previous day, she did have something of both David and Cyrea. She was tall like David, with his hands and feet, but she had her mother’s hair and tail, and she was also shaped like a woman. Her colouring was unexpected. With David being almost black in hair colour, and Cyrea a reddish brown with blond streaks they would have expected her to be somewhere in the middle, but she was actually a redhead. They ignored the doctors talking about recessive genes for red heads, and just stared, only one real thought in their minds. She was beautiful.

  “Oh Lord. We’re going to have our hands full, love. The boys will love her. They’ll eat her alive.” Cyrea agreed instantly, in love with what she saw. She wasn’t alone.

  A series of graphs shot up, and they watched with a complete lack of enthusiasm as everything fr
om her liver function to heart rate was discussed in the most excruciating detail. All they really wanted to see was their daughter again. But they did listen as time and again the thousand and one doctors ended up by telling them she was perfect. Her every function from renal absorption to lung development was well within the normal range. ‘Perfect’ seemed to be their new pet word for the day.