Backyard Aliens

by Persun, Terry

  ***

  Kek-ta squirmed and shifted to provide room for her mate to grow. Consciousness, like a dream she’d uncovered, charged through her. How long had they waited at low-level-life before the atmosphere changed, before the world uncovered them again? She tried to shake her head, an involuntary action, but they were still inside the support shell. There was little room for movement of any kind.

  Consciousness—it wasn’t that at all, was it? The chip pushed another charge through her. That’s right. Kek-ta volunteered for this duty. For science. For her race, her dying race. This was her memory returning.

  She poked a foot at the body that shared the shell with her using a developing muscle. The other moved. At least it was alive. Was it still in low-level-life? Had its bio accelerator kicked-in?

  Wow. She tried to shiver as another charge traced through her system. Her body expanded; it grew. For a moment, her mind went fuzzy, which caused her worry. “No, no, no,” she murmured. But even as she begged she understood that she had her consciousness back, or she wouldn’t know to beg, to question. As soon as the rush passed, Kek-ta checked in with herself. She felt clearer. Oh, more information. Like any scientist, she wished she could record everything, take notes, monitor her progress.

  Another rush. How often would this happen? She went fuzzy again, but waited for the recovery this time…and it came. Along with each bio-acceleration charge, came more information, more recalled memory. The two were tied together, body and brain.

  Life. She recalled that, unless the accelerator had failed, it only engaged if the support shell came into contact with a DNA strand similar to hers…and his. She now knew that the other body inside the support shell was male. A mating pair—the only downside to the excitement of the experience. But again, it was necessary if they were to create life.

  Question: did she know who rode inside the pod with her? Not so far. A protector, though, that would be logical.

  Her body growth, she imagined, stretched from inside itself; not stretched, then, but inflated, like an environmental suit.

  Another bio-acceleration charge. She waited.

  Her heartbeat picked up. To accommodate her increased size? Or was it worry? If the life form that discovered them were to find a way to extract the shell, they’d most likely die. Her body bios were pliable, chemically-compromised until it was time to emerge. How long was set-up time, and how could she be sure in this atmosphere, on this planet, that it would be accurate to their calculations? Maybe it hadn’t been calculated.

  She tried to move. The other body inflated to take up any space she didn’t. She allowed understanding to swallow her. They were still forming; their bodies actually flowed around one another at the moment.

  She longed for her own periphery, her own space.

  CHAPTER 3

  ON THE RETURN TRIP around the campus, as they made their way back toward their car, Neil pointed out a few men dressed in fatigues carrying a medium sized dog crate up the stairs to the archaeology building. “There they go,” he said. “I hope it holds whatever comes out of that egg.”

  “It should. The egg’s pretty big now. That thing is growing. I doubt it’ll slip through the bars.” Mavra walked on the grass next to Neil, who walked on the sidewalk. She had her shoes off, claiming to need the feel of the grass on her bare feet to get grounded again, after her reading.

  Neil held her hand during the entire walk. Both halves of his brain, his minds, ran through Mavra’s dialog about what she sensed while performing psychometry on the egg. “You closed your eyes this time,” he said. “You don’t always do that.”

  “A special case. I needed to block everything out. If I had seen your faces while going into the reading, it may have altered what I received.” She shrugged. “Or not.”

  Neil laughed. “It’s amazing to watch you work. I wonder sometimes that if I could do what you do using both sides of my brain, what would I get? Would I get two different visions?”

  “You get two different paths now, don’t you?”

  “On purpose. Sometimes it’s a bit like I have dissociative identity disorder, though. I feel like two different people. But, if your ability is to see what is there, and you really pick up things that are true, wouldn’t both sides of my brain create the same information? I don’t know what that’s like.”

  “I can only guess,” she said, “but I’d say that you’d get two different sets of images and sounds, even though the end result might point in the same direction. Each side of your brain has its own filters to go through, its own associations. I can’t imagine how you keep it straight.”

  “Sometimes I don’t.”

  “You never show it. At least not to me.” She slipped her shoes back on when they got to the parking lot. “Do you hide how you’re truly feeling?”

  “Not usually. It’s just that I only talk with you from one side or the other.”

  “You’re still learning about yourself, aren’t you?”

  “I suppose I am. Aren’t we all?”

  She stayed quiet while they walked across the lot. At the car, she placed a hand to Neil’s face, his right cheek, and looked into his eyes. “You miss your parents?”

  Something about the way she asked the question caused Neil to flash to his childhood and how he relied so heavily on his mother while going through his many identity crises. She used a form of physical therapy along with psychological theories she’d adapted along the way. He recalled how she touched one side of his face or the other, how the tone of her voice changed depending on which side of his brain she wished to elicit a response from. And then there were the words she used, sometimes abstract and sometimes concrete. She had explained many of her ideas to Neil’s father while Neil played in the same room. He understood, and even used her methods himself, touching his right cheek while taking a math test, for example, to stimulate his mind in a certain way.

  At the moment, Neil wondered if Mavra knew what she evoked by touching his right cheek. Did she know how it activated his brain? Did she know how it might prompt a certain answer from him, possibly different from an answer he might offer if she touched his left cheek? Did her psychic skills provide her with intuitive instincts other women wouldn’t possess around him?

  “I miss their guidance,” he said, a practical answer for an emotional question. He let the question shift sides within him. A sudden pain ran through his heart, a sadness that he didn’t let on was even there. “Let’s go,” he said.

  Mavra let her hand slide from his cheek and patted his chest. She lowered her eyes as though she knew there was something going on inside him, as though she knew he hid his emotions. She turned her head away for a moment, looked into his face with a smile, and walked around the car to get in.

  Neil got in beside her. “Where to?”

  “It’s been a long afternoon. How about driving out to that diner again?”

  “You want to check on the waitress,” Neil said.

  Mavra turned her face away as though interested in something outside. “Maybe.”

  “It wasn’t a question,” he said. Neil started the car and put it into gear. “Let’s swing by the area where they moved the dirt from Sam’s back yard before we go eat.”

  “How do you know where that is?” She glared at him. “You were reading the report while driving, weren’t you? I asked you not to do that.”

  Neil punched the address into the GPS instead of saying it out loud.

  “You memorized the address, too.” She appeared a little miffed, but he knew she wouldn’t stay that way for long. That’s one of the things he loved about her.

  “Did the walk help you remember anything more?”

  “You’re ignoring me, but that’s okay.” She adjusted herself, as though getting comfortable. “I got a very uneasy feeling about this thing, like it was placed here for a reason.”

  “Alien egg. I’d say there’s a reason.”

  “You’ve crossed the line from rock to egg, and from fossil to al
ien pretty quickly,” she said.

  “I believe in you.”

  “That’s so sweet.”

  He pulled out of the lot and onto the road. “I’m surprised that the government isn’t evacuating the people in those houses so they can tear them down and re-dig the whole area to look for another one of those things.”

  “There’s only one.” Mavra put her hand over her mouth the moment she said it. “I don’t know where that came from. But I get the sense they only needed one.”

  “You creep me out sometimes,” Neil said. “So, why plant the damned thing in Montana?”

  She laughed. “I don’t think they knew it was Montana when they dropped it off. It could have stayed underwater or deep in the ground for another million years.”

  “Except when intelligent species come along and begin to create a civilization.” Neil tapped his forehead with a finger. “Why would that matter and how would they know for sure?”

  “It would matter if they needed help to rebuild their own civilization,” Mavra said.

  “Slaves.” Neil snapped his fingers in her direction. “You’re on a roll today. So, how would they know there was life here? That the egg didn’t just roll up on the shore?”

  “Proper air quality?” Mavra clicked her tongue. “Couldn’t the crystal case be something electronic in nature? It doesn’t have to be an actual egg.”

  “Embedded systems perhaps. It could monitor air quality, moisture content, that sort of thing. But that wouldn’t guarantee life.”

  “Can you get a DNA sampling from a fingerprint?”

  Neil banged the steering wheel with his hand. “You are brilliant. You can actually get about ten billionths of a gram of DNA from an average single fingerprint. Those kids, and then those students, they all touched that egg.”

  Mavra looked pleased with herself, her eyes beaming at him.

  “I can only imagine, but you might be right. Alien technology has got to be far past anything we have. All their circuitry might need is an indication of life. They still wouldn’t know for sure if we were intelligent, but they’d know the planet was life-sustaining.” He stopped and thought for a moment. “You know…if their monitoring equipment could analyze the DNA strand, they’d probably know how intelligent we were, too, or at least our potential.” He shook his head. “I don’t know. Any species that’s ahead of us could have things we couldn’t even imagine yet.”

  “Like giving birth,” Mavra said.

  “What’s that got to do with it?”

  “Science can’t explain how a mother’s body knows when to begin the birthing process. And it doesn’t fully understand why a baby takes its first breath. We do know that a newborn inhales once the umbilical cord hits the open air. That’s why water births are possible. As long as the umbilical cord is under water, the baby still doesn’t take its first breath. There’s time to make sure everything is okay before lifting it out of the water.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “So,” she said, “why not some method of holding off on birth until the egg is touched? Once the proper DNA is recognized, it starts the birthing process. We grow babies in test tubes. This is an enclosed chamber.”

  “Until we know anything further, we might want to have that thing watched.”

  “But that also means that there may be a signal coming from the egg to alert others,” she said, staring at Neil. “Its mother?”

  He pulled off the road and grabbed his phone. “I’ll let Lesser know to tell the military. Did he ever say who was in charge? I can’t believe they weren’t there when we arrived.” Neil didn’t wait for an answer. He held up a finger. “Dr. Lesser? Listen closely. You need to have someone bring in some electronics equipment to monitor outputs from that egg. Fine. The specimen. Look, we believe it may have some sort of transmitter in there. That might even be the sound we heard, some sort of technology we haven’t seen before. This may not be a being at all. Just get them to monitor the area. Yes. Yes. Thank you.” Neil lowered the phone.

  “It’s alive,” Mavra said.

  “He doesn’t have to know that.” Neil sat quietly for a moment. “I need to know if there’s a transmitter inside that egg. If there are aliens, they may already know there’s life on Earth. The gestation period of that little being in there could just be a way to keep us occupied until they get here. If a beacon went out the moment it was touched, then they’re already on their way to pick up their baby.”

  “There are aliens,” she said.

  “I’d like to be there to monitor that egg tonight.”

  “I don’t want to be alone in a hotel. Not with those young men in town. They already have it out for me.”

  “We’ll talk. For now, let’s get to that dirt pile.” He pulled back onto the road, driving faster than before. “This is getting a bit complicated.”

  “Just the way you like it,” she said.

  “Maybe.” He swerved around a curve and turned one eye on Mavra. She appeared calm, which meant she was probably thinking. “If it’s real, then it’s not a bomb or anything.”

  “No. You can rule that out.”

  “Just trying to think of everything.”

  “They’re not going to find anything in that dirt,” she said.

  “You want me to turn around?”

  “No. Let’s make our drive-by.”

  Neil got to the place where they’d moved the dirt from the housing development. It was rather inconspicuous. He knew that the only reason they’d move the dirt was to keep people from the nearby development from getting alarmed. He stopped the car. “No one’s here. I guess sectioning this off using military guards would attract a lot of attention.”

  “There are military all over that campus; those kids aren’t keeping their mouths shut. The students are on the rampage. Really? I’m surprised the New York Times isn’t here, or CNN. I think we’re the only ones who signed that security paperwork.”

  Neil opened the car door and stepped out. There were trees along two sides of the area, maples, birch, and some scrub. “I’m going to wander over and check things out.”

  “Be careful.”

  Neil rounded the back of the car and walked toward the pile of dirt. There were no Keep Out signs, no yellow police ribbon, nothing. He didn’t see anyone either. As he neared the pile, though, he heard something moving from his right. “Who’s there?” When he got no answer, he took a few more steps toward the dirt.

  “Far enough,” a voice came.

  Neil swung around but didn’t see anyone. Cameras, he thought. The voice sounded like it came from speakers. He took another step and heard the slight buzz of a motor. His left eye angled up toward the sound. An automatic rifle, mounted to the side of an upper branch of a pine tree, moved into position. Neil nodded and turned around. Nothing more was said.

  “Satisfied?” Mavra said when he got back into the car.

  “Yep.” He drove toward the diner they stopped at earlier.

  “Nothing in there anyway.”

  “So you’ve said.” He reached over and poked her shoulder. “You don’t have to humor me all the time.”

  “You wouldn’t have been happy until you found out for yourself. Now you know. They’re keeping their eyes on everything. We’re probably being followed.”

  “Why call you in if they have everything under control?” he said.

  “Covering all the bases?”

  “Probably.”

  At the diner, Mavra perked up with excitement to see the same waitress on duty.

  “Hi again,” the woman said as she walked them to the table they sat at earlier. “Water and water,” she said, pointing first to Mavra and then to Neil. “Special is meat loaf. It’s Thursday.” She walked away.

  “No thanks on the meat loaf,” Neil said.

  “She seems friendlier.”

  “Your counsel must have made her feel better. I’m not surprised.” He scratched his head and glanced out the window then back to the menu. “So, what
to eat?”

  “What sounds good to you?”

  “Fish and chips. I know it’ll be greasy, but it just sounds good.” His leg bounced as he talked. He folded the menu and reached for the condiment cart near the window. He pulled it closer. It held salt and pepper, catsup, a desert menu, and a complaint card that looked like it had been there since the twentieth century.

  “Stop fidgeting.”

  “Uh oh,” he said, looking past her toward the front of the restaurant.

  “Don’t tell me; they’re back?”

  “Yeah. Maybe they’re the one’s who are following us.”

  “Don’t you dare again suggest leaving me alone tonight.” She kept her head down, looking at the menu.

  “You sense anything about them?”

  “They’re mad. They think I’m replacing them and their precious science. All those years in school, with hopes and dreams, are shattered because I can hold an object and tell them what they want to know.”

  “I got that much,” Neil said. He stood. “Boys. It’s good to see you again.” He looked past them, then back at Jake. “One short I see.”

  “Harlan is working,” Jake said. “I came to find out what happened.”

  Neil smiled a broad, fake smile. “We signed security paperwork. Can’t talk about it.”

  “So did we,” Jake said.

  “Oh? Dr. Lesser didn’t tell us that.”

  “We did. So, what happened?” Jake posed in front of Neil but looked over and down at Mavra. “She sense anything unusual?”

  Mavra angled her face to look up at Jake. “It’s an egg, and there’s something alive inside it. We don’t know what.”

  “Holy shit,” Jake said, stepping backward and shaking his hand like he was going to go into some kind of dance move. “You can’t know that. What the hell?”

  Neil was about to say something, when Mavra interrupted. “Let me tell you something. You are going to end up in jail if the government finds out that you’re going around talking about this. They don’t fool around.”

  Jake turned a bit pale. Quietly, he said, “I haven’t said anything to anyone but you two.” He looked at his cohorts, and each one shook his head. “None of us have.”