The Alien's Clue

by Ruth Anne Scott

  “I don’t know very much about my mother and father,” she admitted. “I didn’t get to spend much time with them.”

  “That’s right,” Jonah said as though remembering what little she had told him about her childhood. “You said that they traveled a lot when you were younger and that you spent the times when they were away and when you were on breaks from school with Nana.”

  Aubrey nodded.

  “I did,” she said. “They had always wanted children. At least that’s what Nana says. She was my father’s mother. She said that from the time that they were just dating they talked about having a big family one day and all of the things that they wanted to do with their future children. They were so excited to build this whole life. But then my mother just didn’t get pregnant. They tried and tried, but it just didn’t happen for them. So instead they decided to focus on their careers. They both became very successful in their fields. That’s why they traveled so much.”

  “But what about you?” Jonah asked. “Were you a surprise pregnancy?”

  “Not exactly,” Aubrey said. “It was a few years after they got married and they had pretty much put the idea of having a family behind them. Then Nana went outside her house one morning and literally found a baby lying in a basket on her porch.”

  “You?” Jonah asked.

  Aubrey nodded.

  “Me. There was a letter and a few baby things with me, but that’s it. She never had any idea who left me lying there. It didn’t matter, though. She scooped me right up and brought me inside. She called my parents, who happened to be in town, and they came right over. They decided that I was the baby that they had longed for for so long.”

  “So, you’re adopted,” Jonah said, his voice holding an indecipherable combination of surprise and awe. “You hadn’t told me that.”

  “Kind of,” she said.

  “Kind of?” Jonah asked.

  “Well, I mean, yes, I am adopted, but no one knows that. Up until right now only Nana, my parents, and I knew. As soon as they saw me, my parents knew that I was very young. A day or two at the most. My birth mother had literally delivered me and brought me to Nana’s house. They decided that they would pretend that my mother had given birth to me at home. They called for a midwife. Nana is extremely well-known in this area and her name gives her considerable influence. She explained to the midwife that my mother had delivered me and was doing absolutely fine, so she didn’t need an examination, but that she did need a birth certificate for the new baby. Even though the midwife should have known to examine her anyway, she didn’t question what Nana said. She gave them a birth certificate for me and I was officially their child. No one ever had to know the truth. As far as the rest of the world knew, they were just very private about the pregnancy and she delivered a little earlier than expected.”

  “So, if they were so careful about not telling anybody else what was really going on, why did they tell you?” Jonah asked. “Why didn’t they just let you think that you were theirs and never let anyone know?”

  “They did for a while. I think that might have even been the plan. But then they realized that even though having a child was what they had wanted so desperately, it wasn’t what their lives were about anymore. They loved me. I know for certain that they did. But they figured out that they had put the idea of a family behind them for so long that they couldn’t really get back to that space in their minds when they had the opportunity to make those dreams come true. They went back to traveling for work and I started spending even more time with Nana. One day, I was playing in Nana’s attic. There were always so many treasures up there. It was amazing. It felt like the whole world was packed into that space. Of course, you know how big Nana’s house is, so you can imagine that the attic isn’t exactly the size of a normal attic. I didn’t know that, though. I just figured that everyone had a space that big to play and explore. One day I was doing just that and I found a basket that I thought was for a doll. I brought it over to a clear spot on the floor where I had been setting up a little house. I tucked my dolly into it and let her play with the baby things that I found with it. When Nana came upstairs a few minutes later, she found me with it.”

  “Was she angry?”

  “No. The opposite, actually. She was happy. Relieved, even. She started telling me a story about a little baby who showed up unexpectedly but was the most wonderful thing in the world and that she had slept in that basket. Of course, I had no idea what she was talking about at the time. She told me that same story over and over when I was little. Every time that I played with my dolls. Finally, one day I asked her if she was talking about me. I don’t even know what made me think that. I can’t remember any particular thought or event or anything that made it click. It’s like she had just said it enough times that it finally sank in and maybe a part of my brain that I couldn’t even access remembered it. Does that make sense?” Jonah nodded, and Aubrey continued. “Anyway, that’s when I found out. We sat down with my parents that night and talked about it. I was expecting them to be mad at Nana, or even at me, but they weren’t. I think by then they had figured out that that wasn’t a secret that was theirs to keep. They said that I deserved to know who I was and even though they loved me just as if I was their own child, there was part of my identity that I would never be able to know if they pretended forever that the first couple of days of my life didn’t happen. We even started celebrating my birthday twice. Once on the day that they believe that I was born, and once on the day that they adopted me.”

  “It doesn’t sound like you being adopted was ever a problem for you. Why didn’t you tell me about it?”

  “Just because I’m not embarrassed about it doesn’t mean that I really want to tell people. My parents intended people not to know, and I feel like I should respect that. I guess that’s silly.”

  “Do you see your parents often?” Jonah asked.

  “No. I haven’t seen them in a couple of years. They’ve been traveling so much, and I’ve been working. We don’t really have much chance to coordinate with each other.” Aubrey shook her head, trying to dispel the gloom that had settled over her. “We just need to go talk to Nana. She has to know more about this than she has told me. It can’t just be that she sat with her mother and looked at the pictures. She has to have said something to her.”

  “We should take the rest of these files with us,” he said. “Just grab all of them. I don’t know if any of the other ones have anything to do with any of this, but if there is any chance that they are here for a reason, then we should have them.”

  ****

  They scooped all of the records out of the drawer of the file cabinet and headed out of the medical ward. By the time that they reached Nana’s house, the sun was just starting to lighten the horizon, but Jonah wasn’t tired. Adrenaline was running through him and he felt like his body was buzzing with the energy that it caused. They carried the files that they found into the house and put them on the kitchen table. He started the coffeemaker to make Aubrey a cup of coffee as he did every morning. She drew in a breath of the rich smell.

  “That smells wonderful,” she said.

  “I figured you’re going to need it,” he said. “It’s almost time for you to leave for work.”

  Aubrey shook her head as she looked down at the stack of files on the table.

  “No. I’m going to take the day off.”

  “You are?” Jonah asked, feeling shocked. “What about the project in the lab? Won’t they need you?”

  “I’m sure they will,” Aubrey said. “But you need me, too, and you are always going to be more important. Besides,” she reached for her file and held it up for him to see. “I’m pretty sure I’m sick.”

  Jonah gave a short laugh and carried the mug of fresh, hot coffee to the table. He put it down and went to the refrigerator for the cream. The thick white ribbon cut through the blackness and then billowed up from the bottom of the mug, swirling into a smooth light brown. He added a sprinkle of su
gar and stirred it before handing the mug over to her. Aubrey took a sip and Jonah watched her shoulders relax as the sweet flavor flowed through her.

  “We should bring all of this stuff into the study,” Jonah said as it suddenly occurred to him that soon Gannon, Mordecai, and the rest would be waking up and coming down the stairs. “I don’t want to get anyone else involved until we absolutely have to.”

  Aubrey nodded and grabbed a handful of the files. They carried them into the study and rested them in the center of the massive dark wood desk in the center of the room.

  “Wait here for Nana,” Jonah said. “I’ll go upstairs and get the book and the rest of the files.”

  She nodded again and took another sip of her coffee. Jonah rushed out of the room and up the stairs toward their bedroom, thinking about coffee, doctors, and the busy, thrilling days that led up to him leaving Earth and spiraling into the unknown.

  Chapter Two

  Tenley folded another of the cloaks over her arms, trying to ignore the feelings that were bubbling up inside her. Before she could get the garment the rest of the way folded, however, her arms dropped, and she turned toward Michael where he stood across the bedroom, emptying the large wardrobe.

  “Are you really sure about this?” she asked.

  It felt like she had asked the question dozens of times already since Rain first appeared, but she couldn’t stop the thought from moving through her mind. Michael seemed so confident, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel the same way. She wished that she could. She wished that she could have the same positivity and drive that her husband did. He looked at her and she could see that he was frustrated but was trying not to let that frustration develop into anger toward her. This was challenging for everyone and he was struggling to be sympathetic toward the difficulty she was having even as he felt his own excitement toward the possibilities that were ahead.

  “Yes,” he said, dropping the clothes in his arms to the bed. “We’ve been over this. I’ve told you that this is exactly what I want. It’s what I’ve been dreaming of for more than 115 years. It’s what both of us have been dreaming about.”

  “Is it?” Tenley asked.

  Michael looked at her strangely. He took a step around the bed toward her.

  “How many times have we laid right here in this bed talking about Earth? How many times have we thought about what it would have been like if we hadn’t been on the crew and didn’t end up here?”

  “I know,” Tenley said, tossing the cloak onto the bed.

  She could remember making that cloak. It was one of the first garments that she had made for Michael after they crashed on Uoria. She was ambitious and determined to move forward then. Though she had heard some of the rumblings throughout the crew that they shouldn’t give up and should keep trying to find a way that they could return to Earth or at least communicate with mission control, that hadn’t been her first compulsion. Instead, she went into survival mode. Her mind blocked out any reality beyond what they were experiencing right at that moment and she immediately pushed ahead to make sure that they would be able to get through that first afternoon, then the night, then the next day. Every moment was an accomplishment and she focused entirely on preserving the strength, morale, and cooperation of the crew. It was all too possible that the entirety of the crew would rebel, small factions within them breaking off and choosing to fight against those who didn’t agree with them rather than attempting to cooperate. She strove to prevent that, to keep them united and ensure that whatever they were going to do, they were going to do it together.

  As hard as she pushed in those first few hours, days, and weeks to make sure that the rest of the crew stayed focused and they were able to establish the beginnings of a settlement to keep them safe on the strange and foreign planet, Michael had pushed in the opposite direction. He wanted to immediately try to build a vehicle that would sustain them to the nearest space outpost. Even if they were able to get to a small planet that hadn’t yet cooperated with Earth, they would have a chance of utilizing their technology to communicate with mission control and mobilize a rescue unit. She compensated for this pressure with more efforts to settle. He had started pulling apart what was left of the engine of the StarCity in a feeble attempt to restructure a vehicle from the salvaged parts and so she began to pull apart the seats and the carpeting, salvaging the threads and the fibers from them so that she could repurpose them. It took her several long days, but soon she learned to take those threads and weave them into fabric that was soft and warm, ideal for making into cloaks that they could wear to protect them against what they learned was often unpredictable and sometimes bitter weather.

  Giving him the cloak was a message. It was meant to tell him not just that she loved him and wanted him to be comfortable, but also that there was more to taking what was left of their mission and giving it new life than trying to get off of Uoria. She wanted to show him that they could have more, that even if they had to stay here for a time, they could turn what they had into what they needed. She never allowed herself to think that they would be there forever.

  Then things changed. Time passed. Years went by. Michael abandoned the parts of the engine where they lay and eventually they disappeared, going into some other project and taking on new meaning for the crew. What Tenley had thought was going to be just crisis mode, managing their new reality step by step became daily life and soon thoughts of trying to get off of Uoria had disappeared from her mind. Even when they awoke from the lock imposed on them by the Covra, her goals hadn’t changed. She was happy to just go back to the life that they had established for themselves, even letting the arrival of the Denynso roll over her as though nothing different had happened. Then Rain suddenly appeared again. Everything shifted and the fire within Michael was back.

  “You always wanted to go back to Earth,” Michael said. “You always wanted to leave here and go back to the life that we were supposed to have.”

  “No, Michael,” Tenley said. “That’s what you wanted. I talked about being on Earth. I wondered what it would be like if we had never left. I never talked about going back. If I had a choice, I would never have thought about Earth again.”

  “But why?” Michael asked. “Earth is our home. It’s where we built our life.”

  “No,” Tenley said again. “It’s not. It’s where we had the life that we used to have. It’s where we met. But that was only the foundation. That wasn’t our life, Michael. This, right here, is our life.”

  “This is far from anything that we ever knew, Tenley. This isn’t a life. When we joined Nyx 23 we were young. Everything was exciting and thrilling. We had no concept of anything that might happen to us. We thought that we were going to be able to save the world and couldn’t possibly face any real consequences. Then we ended up here. It took everything from us.”

  “It didn’t take each other,” Tenley said. “We might have been together when we were on that ship, but this is where we really fell in love. This is where we really learned about each other and how to rely on each other. This is where we got married and had our first home together. The settlement is what we know. Uoria is our home now. It’s been more than 115 years since we left Earth. We don’t know anything about that planet now. We don’t have a life there or a home. That’s all gone. What we have is right here. Each other. The life that we built here. Our home. Our marriage.”

  Tenley felt her throat tighten with emotion and heard her voice grow high and sharp. She took a breath to calm herself and turned back to the clothing in front of her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Michael come around the side of the bed toward her. He reached out and took her waist, pulling gently on her until she turned to face him.

  “This stopped being an adventure a long time ago, Tenley,” he said softly. “This was our dose of reality, forcing us to realize what could really happen.”

  “I don’t think that it’s an adventure,” she said. “That’s not why I want to stay here. I want to stay he
re because it isn’t an adventure. It’s comfortable. It’s home. I worry that that is why you want to leave.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I haven’t forgotten the type of person you were when I first met you. I remember the spark that was inside of you. There was nothing that could scare you. Nothing that could keep you from taking on a challenge or finding that next thrill. As much as you say that you can’t stand being here and that you wish so much that you were back on Earth, I honestly believe that if before we got on the StarCity someone was able to tell you that we weren’t going to complete our mission and instead were going to end up on some distant planet that hadn’t even been identified yet, you wouldn’t have hesitated. You would have thought that was an amazing prospect, something that was even better than just being able to free a prison colony. It’s a whole new world! A new experience! Something that no one has ever seen before. You wouldn’t have seen the danger or even if you did, you would have thought that that just made it even better. That part of you still exists and I think that it’s that part that’s making you so excited to leave here. You are craving another adventure. You want something more than what you have here.”

  “That doesn’t mean that I want more than you.”

  “It might as well.”

  “What about you?” Michael said, sounding almost angry now. “You used to have that fire in you, too. You were the one who found out about the Nyx 23 project and convinced mission control that we could be trusted to be a part of it. Then we got here, and all of that was gone. You didn’t even want to try to get back. You just gave up the second that the StarCity crashed.”