She leaned closer to the mirror and studied her reflection. She knew her age, but the face staring back from the mirror looked eighteen. She still had freckles, but her skin was smooth and unwrinkled. Rhona touched the mirror with her fingertips. “Nanda, you’re a genius.”
By Laura’s decree, Rhona didn’t have any duties for the day, so she didn’t rush as she donned a new dress and pair of shoes. Judith and Diana had thoroughly enjoyed themselves shopping and the armoire now held a number of changes of clothes. Finally, hunger called and Rhona headed out for breakfast.
The humans sprinkled across the crowded cafeteria were vastly outnumbered. Most of the 75 Abantu living on Earth were present, along with a dozen from Ceres and over 100 from Mars.
Keene was waiting near the door holding a coffee cup. He set the cup down, moved close, and kissed her when Rhona turned her face up. “You look wonderful,” he said.
“I feel wonderful,” she replied. “How are you doing?”
“Great.” He smiled and rubbed his flat abdomen with one hand. “I just hope this flock of butterflies doesn’t get any bigger.”
A bevy of chattering women gathered around Rhona. She smiled and waved when Keene slipped through them and headed towards the serving line. Today was her day, and she was already enjoying it.
The morning passed in a whirlwind of activity. Every visiting Abantu, three of them male, made time to talk to Rhona. Finally, Judith extracted Rhona from a knot of laughing women. “You need to get changed.”
Security is easier to maintain in an underground facility with only two entrances than in a school in the middle of town. Four Abantu from Mars had been on Earth for a week standing watch in the Intelligence Center, so every Abantu living on Earth could attend the ceremony.
The electronic sensors and the attentive Abantu attendants watched for problems, but they were short-handed on physical security. Judith carried the wedding dress when the wedding party headed to the school. One local woman who had worked part-time in the sheriff’s office stood guard outside the teacher’s lounge when Rhona started changing.
The beautiful wedding dress was floor length because Rhona had refused to wear one so long she couldn’t lift the skirt and run. There were limitations for the embedded security hardware, so the dress covered her shoulders and back. The neckline exposed part of her cleavage and the trim waist accentuated the curves of her upper body. The ivory colored material looked like satin and it flowed in gentle waves when she moved.
Judith fussed over Rhona, adjusting and smoothing the dress, and combing her hair. She gave Rhona a long hug. “You look beautiful.”
Rhona returned the hug and then pulled back. “Thanks, Mom. I’m ready and I’d like to listen to the music.”
Three weeks previously, Laura had asked Rhona to let her revise the plans for the opening music. Rhona had agreed only after Laura told her that Abantu musicians would perform using traditional instruments.
“Of course,” Judith replied to Rhona.
Rhona’s father joined them as they moved out into the edge of the foyer and watched people streaming into the gym. Many of them stopped and offered a word of congratulations.
The wedding was by invitation only and two teenage couples selected by Andrea stood at the doors, checking the attendance list. Security people roamed outside and waited nearby inside the school. Fortunately, no one tried to crash the party.
The music began twenty minutes before the start of the ceremony. Twelve Abantu, ten of them from Mars, sat just inside the doors. Rhona peeked through one of the doors during the first song. Eight of the Abantu played stringed instruments of different sizes. Form follows function, so the instruments had hollow bodies, but the sound was different than any human violin, cello, or bass. The other four played flutes fashioned from a combination of metal and wood from their home on Polaris.
The cadence was different from any Rhona had ever heard and the music was mellow rather than strident. Rhona felt herself relaxing. Maybe this is the kind of music Robert Browning was thinking about when he wrote the poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
The foyer darkened just as Rhona realized the four flutes were playing the opening measures of Hadar’s wedding song. Rhona glanced out the window and then turned to her mother with a pleased smile. “The president just arrived.”
Two people began singing the wedding song in the ancient language. One voice was male, but pitched so high he could easily sing the alto part. The other voice was a female soprano. They sang effortlessly and in perfect pitch. Their voices were so strong they didn’t use microphones.
“Who’s singing?” Rhona asked.
Judith smiled. “Laura finally relented and told me her plans, but she made me promise to not tell you.”
“Well, are you going to tell me, or do I have to go in there and look for myself?”
“It’s Nana and Orin. Laura said Nana has studied music and taken voice lessons for over 7,000 years. She was the best female vocalist on Polaris. In contrast, Orin has only been taking lessons for 950 years.”
The beautiful music had just finished when the foyer brightened. Rhona glanced over just as David Beganovic opened the outside door for President Leek. A mountain of a man followed the president through the door.
Rhona chuckled while she watched the huge man move lithely across the floor, his eyes busy surveying the room. He didn’t spend any longer looking at her than anyone else. The man didn’t need to carry weapons–he was a weapon.
She stepped forward, hands extended, as the president approached. “I’m glad you could make it, sir.”
He smiled while he reached for her hands. “You’re a unique woman and you offered me a unique ride. I couldn’t turn down the invitation.”
He held her hands for a few moments and then, with another smile, he stepped closer and hugged her. The large man beside him flinched, but he didn’t reach out to stop the action. The defensive functions in the dress didn’t consider the president a threat, but they momentarily enlarged the protective shield just outside her skin.
A puzzled look crossed the president’s face when he stepped back. “Your dress felt funny.”
Rhona smiled and ran her fingers down the decorated bodice. “Your ride was unique. This dress is unique. I have no desire to get shot again.”
The president cocked his head and then insight showed on his face. “Ah, I understand.”
The president then reached out with one hand towards Rhona’s parents. “You must be Charles and Judith. You have a wonderful daughter.”
“Thank you,” Charles said as Judith nodded agreement.
“I’d better go get my seat.” The president stepped back and turned towards the interior doors. He looked back and sounded amused when he added a tag line. “It’s been a while since I set in the middle of the crowd.”
Orin emerged from the gym shortly after the president entered. Rhona moved towards him. “That was a beautiful song. I didn’t know you could sing.”
Rhona thought she saw a blush on his brown skin when he replied. “I’m glad you liked it.”
Five more world leaders arrived about a minute apart. They all greeted Rhona and her parents and then entered the gym. Time ran down, and the formal wedding activities began.
Lisa and Ivette moved up the center aisle strewing yellow and purple rose petals behind them. They both wore outfits with white tops and yellow skirts that matched the color of the banked daffodils. The ends of a white sash tied around their waists draped a little lower than their skirts.
The bridesmaids and groomsmen gathered in the foyer. The women wore daffodil yellow with purple accents. The men wore light grey tuxedos. The music shifted to a new song and Orin and Laura moved along the aisle arm in arm. At just the correct moment, Wade and Nanda moved out into the aisle. Sam and Trixie were next, followed by Craig and Diana. Keene followed them and took his
place on the platform.
After the briefest of pauses, the music started again. The musicians were not human, but they played Pachelbel’s Canon better than any human orchestra. Elaine and Beverly pulled open the doors and Rhona began a walk she had never anticipated making. Excitement, elation, and satisfaction cycled through her mind so quickly she was tempted to pull up her skirts and run to where Keene was waiting. Instead, she smiled so widely her cheek muscles complained and walked regally beside her father to meet her lover.
The short ceremony seemed to pass in a flash for Rhona. Moments later, she faced the audience with Keene at her side. They raised their intertwined hands in a salute and walked down the aisle together as otherworldly musicians played a wonderful rendition of the March from Verdi’s Aida.
The reception line, limited to Rhona, Keene and both of their parents, formed at the far edge of the cafeteria. Beverly’s crew served a multitude of snacks and drinks. The Abantu were outnumbered by humans about five to one, but there were enough that every human had a chance to speak to one of the newly discovered aliens. Every Abantu was proficient in English and several of them spoke three or more human languages.
Diana, the official photographer, circulated taking unobtrusive pictures. Six ultra-high resolution cameras lurked in her hair decorations and they each captured sixty-four frames a second with no need for a flash.
Keene took a step out of the receiving line when President Leek approached. He spoke respectfully. “Sir, these are my parents, Trent and Deborah Finch.”
He turned back to his parents. “Mom and Dad, this is President Leek.”
Trent seemed dumbfounded. He looked seventy rather than his actual age of fifty-five, and the youthful faces of Rhona’s parents made the age contrast seem vastly greater. “Uh, I heard you were coming. Welcome.”
The president gave the practiced smile of a politician as he replied smoothly. “You have a wonderful son. You must be very proud of him.”
“Yeah, we are,” Deborah said as she nodded her head.
Rhona didn’t try to hide her smile when she heard the exchange between the president and Keene’s parents. After all, everyone expected her to smile all day. She had been flabbergasted but accommodating, when they had called Keene just three days before the wedding and asked to come.
After two deep breaths, Keene had responded coolly to the request. “You’re welcome on three conditions. You come sober. You don’t cause a scene with any of the Abantu attending the wedding, and you find your own place to stay.”
“Of course,” Deborah replied.
“I’m serious, Mom,” Keene replied. “Come to the school two hours before the wedding. I’ll show you what to do.”
“And do what? Run a sobriety test?” Trent asked gruffly.
“You can call it that,” Keene said. “Are you coming?”
“We’ll come,” Deborah said and ended the conversation. Rhona was sure she had heard a curse from Trent before the line went dead.
“Congratulations,” President Leek said to Rhona while he took her hand and lifted it. “That’s a beautiful ring.”
“It’s one of a kind,” Rhona said as she elevated the platinum band with her thumb. Green vines and gold daffodils ran entirely around the band. “The gold and platinum came from mines under the embassy. Keene collected the small emeralds near Hiddenite, North Carolina, and the small rubies from Cherokee Mine in North Carolina.”
“That’s a big diamond,” the president remarked when Rhona took a breath.
“That’s a present from Laura. It came from her home world.”
“Oh, it’s unique indeed. Who made the ring?”
“Adara and Wilda made it in the manufacturing complex.”
The president moved on, flanked by David Beganovic and his one personal guard, and others took his place in line. Rhona spared enough glances across the crowd over the next hour to see that the president managed to hold long conversations with Laura, Anaka from Mars, and Nana from Ceres.
“I’m pooped,” Judith said when the receiving line ran down an hour and a half after the wedding finished. She turned to Rhona. “Are you going to give us a clue where you will be honeymooning?”
“One clue,” Rhona said. “We’ll do several things, including a few serious hikes. No mountain is more than 45 minutes away when you can use a shuttle.”
“That’s it?” Charles asked.
Rhona chuckled. “I’ll give you a second clue. We also have an invitation to visit a little further away from home. We’ve decided to accept it.”
Chapter 40 – Coup Exposed
A week later, Rhona and Keene returned to Jetmore. At Nana’s invitation, they spent three days on Ceres. Two and a half months after passing Earth, the dwarf planet had already traveled 1,700 AU and it was moving just over twenty-five percent of the speed of light. Rhona briefly tried to visualize how the Star Portal could match velocities and eliminate the time dilation of relativistic travel, but tossed the thought aside and reveled in the time spent with Keene.
They walked into the cafeteria hand in hand, smiling as broadly as on the day of their wedding. “I’m ready to go back to work,” Rhona said to her mother while they both filled coffee cups.
“Bored?”
“It’s been fun, really fun, but we both need a new challenge.”
“We still have a challenge,” Sam said from the other side of Judith. “We know where Rucker is, but Martin is still elusive. We’ve come within half a day of catching up with him several times during the last week.”
“I thought you would have that sewn up by now,” Rhona said, only half jesting.
“We just brought another processor online for Dulcis,” Trixie added from beside Sam. “However, we’re still CPU limited in processing all of the data looking for terrorists.”
“What about the planned coup?”
Sam shrugged. “We gave David more information the day after your wedding and even more yesterday. D-Day is five days out.”
Keene arrived in time to hear part of the conversation. “Have they actually kept it under wraps?”
“Yes,” Sam said.
“And no,” Trixie added. “These people are paranoid and several of them have noticed investigators sniffing around. Sam says it could get ugly.”
Breakfast ran long and they finally headed up to the Intelligence Center. Rhona looked around the chaotic room and was surprised how much she had missed it.
“Over here,” Laura called.
“What’s happening?” Rhona asked as she moved closer. Keene was a step behind her.
“We put several sensors around Senator Parker. Around his office, his home, his club and even his favorite restaurants.”
“What did you find?” Rhona asked.
“He has a double-mind trace,” Laura said while a number of new displays appeared. “The other mind seems most active while he is sleeping.”
“That’s odd,” Keene commented.
“It seemed odd at first,” Laura agreed. “Then, we overheard him saying he gets many of his ideas while he is sleeping, or dreaming.”
Keene nodded. “Several people in the Bible received messages in dreams.”
“Yeah,” Rhona agreed. “Many of those dreams passed on useful information. However, the spirit in the dream Eliphaz the Temanite recounted in the book of Job was terrifying.”
“Do you think these are angels?” Laura asked with a look of disbelief.
“I’m not sure what to think, but they are certainly different than anything else. They don’t seem to have a physical body, but they can live in one. How many have you found?”
“Three so far.” Laura shrugged. “We’ve been busy all week putting out sensor packages. We have about 7,000 active sensors.”
“How did you get close to Martin?” Keene asked.
Even t
hough Keene spoke in a level conversational tone, Rhona could see a small muscle tic in his neck. He still wanted justice for Brenda’s death.
Laura turned and pointed at another display. “He routinely sends messages to his control computer, but every message originates from a different computer. The messages start with an authentication code and then they issue financial instructions. We’ve looked through the sending computers. The messages have a built-in delay from one to eight hours–long enough for Martin to disappear before the message goes out.”
“Different cities?” Rhona asked.
“Four cities in eight days.”
“Can we predict the next city?” Keene asked.
“Sam and Trixie are working that angle, but nothing yet.”
“Do we have a picture of him?” Rhona asked.
A collage of pictures appeared on a display. Laura shrugged. “We don’t have a picture since six months before Brenda’s death.”
“Is he still alive?” Keene whirled around. “I mean, are we simply up against a human-built AI?”
“We haven’t examined that possibility,’ Laura responded. “However, his investments are doing extremely well.”
Rhona grinned, knowing her investments in the Abantu financial empire were growing at a phenomenal rate. “As good as your investments?”
“Almost.”
The implications of the response tickled dormant thoughts that slowly began to awaken. As they did, new concepts flashed into focus. Rhona took a deep breath. “He must have insider information.”
Laura rubbed the top of her shoulder as she looked at Rhona with wide eyes. “Are you suggesting–”
“Right,” Rhona interrupted. “We should be looking at this from the other end. He’s gathering information by talking to people or running computer queries. We should be able to figure out who he is talking to by looking at his investments.”
Two hours later, Keene whistled so loudly the sound reverberated from every wall. “Over here,” he shouted. “Sam and Trixie found Martin!”
“Where?” Rhona called back while she raced across the room.
Variations on Humanity Page 31
