T-47 Book II (Saxon Saga 6)

by Frederick Gerty

  Lori’s arm holding the phone dropped as she stared at the Kobi, and Lauren appeared behind Tarissa. The Kobi said, “You may call me Tari.”

  “You are Valleta’s sister?” Lori said, her voice almost cracking.

  “Yes.”

  “What are you doing here?” Lori said in a low voice, her eyes on Tari, ignoring Lauren’s rather frantic look for the moment.

  “I have come to take the place of my sister, to complete her work, and keep the honor of the obligation one of my family undertook, to serve you.” She stopped, then added slowly, “If you will have me.”

  Two security people hurried up, a man and a woman, looking serious and a bit anxious. Lori held up a hand, stopping them as they pushed past Lauren. More people now gathered nearby in the small hallway, looking into the office.

  “I didn’t get...see, your message. Documentation?” Lori said, and pointed to Lauren.

  “I told her when I arrived,” Tari said, but pulled a shoulder bag around, arousing the alertness of the security people further, but all she removed was small disk, which she handed to Lauren. The administrative assistant slid it into her reader, and scanned the contents, and then flashed them to the nearby wall screen, and they played there. Complete body scan, retina scan, nose print, family records, school and training records, passport, departure and entry permits, and a temporary visa, endorsed and vouchered by the ambassador from Kalimanta in the city herself.

  Last a short video clip, two Kobi, Leta and Tarissa, bumping and hugging each other, and speaking their language, Leta’s sweet voice, translated by the program saying, “Hey, this is my kid sister, the brat, the bane of my younger existence, but now all grown up, educated, and hey, even, finally, a little smart. Not as smart as me, but pretty good. Did great in school. Has Earth training, too, and speaks the president’s American English, besides. She’ll do well on Earth. Hope you will give her a chance to prove herself.” Leta looked at her sister, and bared her teeth in a mock bite, and then the two jostled and poked at each other some more. The clip ended.

  “That was taken a week or so before news of the...attack arrived, and Leta left,” Tarissa said.

  Lori stared at the blank image of the wall screen, and sighed, remembering Leta. Slowly she looked at Tarissa. “You planned to come here?”

  “Oh, I hoped to get a position on Earth, somehow, like Leta, but not here. Not until...she... died.” She looked down, then up again. “Now I am here, to do what I may for you, for so long as you might need me. Sky Lady, I cannot replace my sister. I am not her twin. I cannot be her. But I can work for you, as she did, I hope. She told me much of you, and her duties, and I remember it all. The rest I will learn as quickly as I may.” She looked down again. “Or you may send me away, I will understand.”

  Yes, and be disgraced forever, Lori thought. But she held up a hand, said to the security detail, “Give us a few minutes, OK? I need to speak to this one some more.” She looked at Lauren, pointed to the disk, and nodded once. Lauren took her reader with the disk and left, to verify it all. The security people stepped back, but would not leave, she knew.

  Lori walked behind her desk, dropping her coat on the table, and sat down. She motioned Tarissa to come in and sit, and she did, squatting in the Kobi way in front of her desk. “Now, tell me how you know the computer codes, and where to go and everything else.”

  Tarissa did, giving an animated brief rundown of everything her sister told her on her last trip home, and how she envied her life and adventures. And how Leta played the VR tape of her workstation and the office here in New York. Tarissa watched it over and over on her trip here, she determined to do well when she came to New York, and try to work in her sister’s place, and do what she could for the Sky Lady. And she brought with her all of Leta’s ID and security disks, and they were still functional, so she just came in and started to work. “Should I have not done so”

  Lori shrugged. Too late, anyway. She looked seriously at Tarissa. “And your parents, what do they think of all this?”

  “My father is quite upset, you know, he took Leta’s death very hard.”

  As did I, Lori thought. So we do have something in common, after all, he and I.

  “I saw you at the funeral,” Tarissa said, “or at least your air car, or someone, watching from afar, and thought if it was you, it was highly rude to exclude you, but my father’s pain clouded his judgment, he needed something to...be angry with. And you were handy.” Again a pause, Lori could understand that. “When we left, I noticed you flew to the grave site, so I returned, and saw you at the grave, and what you did. I saw how you loved my sister. I only hope you know how she loved you.”

  Lori swallowed, as her eyes filled up, and a tear collected, and ran down her face.

  “Oh, I am sorry, I did not mean to upset you, Sky Lady,” Tarissa said, continuing to use her honorific title, and moved closer to Lori, opened the drawer on her desk, and pulled out a tissue, and handed it to her. “I will go now.”

  “No, wait,” Lori said, wiping at her face, and sniffling once. “Tarissa, stay. Tell me more about Leta, what she did when she returned home, and before she left to come back here, and then meet me on Florez.”

  Tari relaxed, said she preferred to be called that name, and told of her sister’s triumphant return to her home planet, and village, the wonderful things she brought with her, the golden nuggets and sun god idols and all the rest, and the amazing tales and stories, and video clips, and her instant fame, all the TV appearances. And how she told of the wonderful human she accompanied, and who took her to so far distant a place, and how she loved and admired the human person she, and many others now called “The Sky Lady.”

  Leta told her everything about Lori, she gathered, where she worked, and where she lived, what she liked and did not, and how to please her. She added that her boyfriend impressed everyone on Kalimanta, when he arrived to comfort her.

  In the midst of it all, Lauren peered in the doorway, raised her eyebrows, and gave a thumb up. Lori nodded, and returned her attention to Tari.

  Tari said the action of her father shamed her, her family, and her people, but Lori cut her off. “No, there is no shame in sorrow, nor in how a parent chooses to mourn a lost child. I said my goodbye to Leta, I have no regrets otherwise.”

  After a moment, Tari said, “You are as kind as Leta said you are.”

  “Back to your father, what does he think of you coming here?”

  “I am of adult years, I may do what I wish,” Tari said, rather forcefully. Lori said nothing. Tari went on. “He opposed it...he was most upset...furious, I, you would say. He said, ‘What, the Earth has taken one of my daughters, you would give it both?’ But I only said that I would seek to finish that what my sister started, and thereby honor her name, her memory, and her people. That we all,” and she held her hands out wide for a moment, “might be seen to be honorable. Honorable people.” She sat back.

  The security team peered in. What to do?

  Lori surely missed Leta, her organizational skill, her ability to anticipate what was needed, and have it ready, or done, for her without needing to be told. This one, new, familiar with the layout and some of the office routine, maybe, but green and ignorant, would need to be told and trained in everything. Well, maybe not everything. And Lori hardly had the time. Still, she felt drawn to Tari, wanted, needed, to talk to her more, at length, of Leta, yet, how would it look, what would everyone say? She sighed. Probably criticize me, and maybe with reason. She exhaled again, looking at the Kobi before her. She sure could use some help. And she decided, again, to give the person a try. Fuck ‘em, let ‘em criticize me, they do and will in any event.

  “If you remain,” she said to Tari, “I cannot guarantee your safety, though we take extraordinary measures now...” if obviously not that thorough, when an imposter just sauntered in. “And I fear the wrath of your father, for you, and for me.”

  “I am aware of risks, all life is a risk, and we all end our jo
urneys too soon at the same place. Back home is no different, there we have the reminder of another world falling into ours. But no more, thanks to your ancestor. I am prepared to assume the risk of living in a strange and different world. And wonderful, too. And in time, my father will mellow. And I know I will return to him one day.”

  Not so sure of that, Lori said, “Very well, I will give you that chance.” Standing and smiling, and moving toward Tari, she said, “I will accept with thanks your offer to continue the work of your sister, who I miss every day. I welcome you to her place.”

  Tari leaped to her feet, to meet Lori’s outstretched hand, and take it in both of hers.

  “Oh, thank you, Sky Lady, for the high honor you grant me. I will do my best to please you. Now, first, I will bring you your coffee. I have caused it to be late this morning, I will do so at once.” Without waiting for an OK, the Kobi turned, and hurried out, past the security team.

  Lori turned her head to the side, shrugged and said, “Guess we’re gonna give her a try. Thanks for coming up.”

  They nodded, said to call them anytime, and walked away.

  Lori sat at her desk for a few minutes, daubing at her eyes with the soggy tissue Tari had handed her, remembering Leta. She ignored the flashing messages on her mail screen, and ran the clip of Leta and Tari again. With a sigh, she turned it off, threw away the tissue, and started to work.

  That night, at dinner, with Hunter there at her parents’ place, he said, “You did what? The sister of Leta?”

  “Yes. You never met her...”

  “No, but I knew about her.”

  “How?”

  Hunter waved at her, “I did. So you hired her?” He looked at her parents. “What do you think of this?”

  “We went over it when she called me this morning,” her father said. “She knows she can’t reincarnate Leta, can’t replace her, or clone her, no matter what.” He shrugged. “But if she works half as well as her sister did, I’d say she’s got a good choice.” He shrugged again.

  Hunter’s eyes went to Mrs. Sloane’s. She said, “Far be it to me to tell my daughter who to hire for her office, or expedition. I just worried about an Earth Only plant, you know, a spy.”

  “Pretty strange one to plant, that.”

  “No, ideal, actually, if it was someone else, who’d ever suspect? Who else could get so close to Lori? And so quickly.”

  “Her security and ID check out?” Hunter said.

  “So far, six ways to Sunday.”

  “I’m insisting on a surprise retina scan tomorrow. Nose print analysis, too. Lori will be out of it, I’ll say it’s company policy, a security requirement for new hires. And then we’ll see what she does,” her father said.

  “Lori what do you think?” Hunter said. “Is she who she says she is?”

  “Yes.” Her eyes locked on his.

  Hunter nodded. “OK, hope it all works out. I’d like to meet her, OK? How about lunch tomorrow?”

  “That would be nice. You gonna pick us up?”

  “No, I think you ought to bring her over in Eagle One, see what that says about her.”

  “It won’t have anything to say about her, it’ll just be another passenger.”

  “Have it scan her, anyway.”

  After lunch, the two dropped Tari off at the office, and sat for a moment in the air car.

  “Results of scan?” Hunter asked Eagle One.

  “Negative. Scan normal for a Kobi female.”

  “No weapons, radio transmitters, hidden chips?”

  “Nothing detected.”

  “Did you notice any resemblance to Leta?” Lori asked.

  “Superficial only,” Eagle One said.

  “She claims to be Leta’s sister. Analyze for similarities.”

  Script scrolled, symbols, voice prints, perhaps, image outlines, more Lori could not figure out. The air car said, “Compatibility measures 97 percent, very high for unrelated Kobi, and 99 for voice scan. Probability of close relationship positive.”

  Lori turned to look at Hunter, lowered her head and raised her eyebrows. “Satisfied?”

  “Yes, especially after passing the retina scan and all. OK. Eagle One, just watch the Kobi, as anyone else. We need to be very careful after the Earth Only incident.”

  The air car just sat there, silent. Lori suppressed a knowing smile.

  “I concur, Eagle One, maintain surveillance mode for the Kobi Tarissa, advise me of any anomalies at once.”

  “Roger,” it said, as script scrolled.

  By the third day, Lauren said the “New Girl,” as she called her, knew her way around, knew how to use the computers as well as she did, passed all the security checks they could think of, and was doing fine. Lori thanked her, and sent her on back to her father’s office, with a letter of commendation for the file. Now she had to deal with Tari herself.

  But there was little to be concerned with. Tari was there when Lori arrived in the morning and stayed at night as long as she did. She found herself leaving earlier, just so the Kobi would go home, too. Her parents, and boyfriend, said they appreciated that. Coffee arrived exactly at 10 a.m., and she always asked what the lunch plans for the day would be. Assignments appeared slowly at first, Lori could hardly find fault with her work, needed to make corrections only once, or answer a question or a query one time, and the Kobi remembered. Her only fault seemed to be to want to get everything perfect, and that took time at first. But she sped up exponentially as the days passed. Hunter quickly came to like her, always stopped to see her and speak to her on the times he visited the office, which were often once a day, or every other day, at a minimum. Lori stopped thinking of her as Leta, or comparing her to her sister, and accepted her for herself, smart, independent, and dependable.

  The first weekend, she invited Tari for dinner with her grandparents at North Rock, to meet the family, who soon welcomed her like a lost daughter. Tari seemed quiet and shy, basically sitting there, until Lori’s mother asked if she had ever seen a human home.

  “No never, only on the TV, or VR.”

  “Come on, I’ll show you this one,” and she led her on a tour of the house, and then outside to the garden, pool, and lawn. They returned inside after a while, chatting, with Tari relaxed and more at ease. She joined in the talk, and could not be dissuaded from helping with the meal. After they sat on the patio as dusk fell, enjoying coffee and dessert, and talking. Lori watched the talk, and laughter, and thought of Leta.

  Two weeks after Tari started, Lori arrived one morning, earlier than usual, and found her asleep on the settee in her room. “Tari, are you sick or something?” she asked, crouching near her. Tari woke suddenly, sitting up, starting to apologize, but Lori said, “Are you OK?” The alien insisted she was. “But what are you doing here? Did you sleep here last night?”

  Tari nodded, said she was working on a special research project, one her sister intended to do, had set the parameters and specifications, and refined them on her trip to Earth and later on the ship to Florez. Tari found the disk in her sister’s effects, opened the program, and followed the directions. “It took me many days. Many hours.” Her eyes went to Lori’s and she said, “You will not like what I have found.”

  “What is that?”

  Tari stood, went to the doorway, looking out both ways, then returned, and retrieved a small disk from a voice-locked container in her waist pouch. “This,” she said, handing it to Lori.

  Lori looked at it, slipped it into her personal computer, and Tari immediately blocked the IR port, cutting access to the net. Lori said nothing, and opened the one highlighted file on the disk. When it began to play, she felt the color drain from her face. Her eyes found Tari’s. “This is true?”

  “I fear it is. I cannot confirm it myself, trust you can, but this is what I found when I went looking at the places Leta said I should.”

  Lori read some more, then picked up the phone, pushed two numbers. She said, “Daddy, I have to see you right away.”

/>   “Lori, I’m in the middle of a meeting. Can’t it wait?”

  “No, I don’t think it can. It’s about that peaches without the cream dessert.”

  A sudden pause at the danger code word for the family. Her father said, “I’ll be right there–your office?”

  “Yes.”

  Lori scarcely returned to the file, when her father, without his usual suit coat, rushed in. He looked at the two women, and one glance at Lori told him it was serious. “What?” he said.

  “Come look at this. And Tari, maybe you can tell us what it all means.”

  Tari, in quite awe of Mr. Sloane, and still the same with Lori, approached, and said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Leta wondered how it was that the bandits knew you would be where you would be when you were, so they could attack. She thought that someone close to you might have compromised you. But how to tell? And who? She said to start to look at the membership of the Earth Only, the ones that attacked you. She thought that would be very difficult, to find out. But with the lawsuits now going on, the membership and donors list is made public, or at least some is available in the court papers. So I had the computer check the names there against the company roster, and then all the companies for whom they supply you, the Saxon Enterprise. Next, I needed to verify people, many names similar. But some, these 22, passed the tests. Or perhaps I should say failed. Yes, these 22 work for you, or for the companies you buy from, and belong to or contribute to the Earth Only organization. Do you know any of them?”

  Mr. Sloane pointed to one, and said, “My Vice President for Sales. And this one, in our Denver subsidiary. Who is this?” he said, pointing to the name Nanci Nedri.

  Lori said, “She’s three doors down, a personnel analyst, checks and verifies the security clearances of potential hires.”

  “She know your schedule?”

  “Yeah, pretty much, I suppose. Meets with me a lot.”

  “She ever insist on hiring someone, or not?”

  “No, always deferred to me.”

  “Yeah, questionable people never got to you. Or dubious info about the ones she wanted on the payroll, either.”