by S. E. Smith
J’kar seemed to realize his brother was staring at him intently. He turned, his face set. He looked coldly at Brock. “What have you discovered about it?”
Brock leaned forward holding the device and turning it over and over in the palm of his hand. “It appears to be some type of signaling or location device possibly. I am analyzing the information but have not been able to decipher it yet.”
“Derik, what can you tell me about the…about Tink.” J’kar asked his youngest brother. He purposely used her name. He had to talk as if he would have her with him again.
“Just what I’ve told you so far and what you have seen on the video capture. She was unbelievable! She attacked the Juangan, patched me up, and helped me to the bridge. Everything else you know.” Derik said with a hint of worship in his voice.
J’kar sank slowly into the seat at the head of the table. “We do not know who she is, where she came from, how she came to be on the ship, or who took her. Is there anything that we do know?” He asked quietly.
He felt an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness. He had never felt out of control. For once in his life, he felt like he had no control over what was going on. At this moment, he did not know what to do. All they had was some useless video and a device that told them nothing. J’kar looked at the men seated at the table. They were his most trusted, valued friends and warriors. They had never been defeated by anything. Now it appeared the appearance of a single female and her disappear were going to be their first defeat.
“Testing one, two, three…testing. Mm, is this thing working? Do you understand what I am saying?” A husky, feminine voice said.
The four men sitting at the table, each deep in thought, jumped when the female voice came on over the com. Moving quickly, the men assumed a defensive position looking around the room for the voice.
“Hello, can you understand me? Oh, dear. I wonder if I got the programming right. Damn, I thought it was working.” The voice said with an amused sigh.
“Who’s there?” J’kar demanded. He looked around at the other men in the room. The voice was coming from the com center attached to the wall. He glanced at Lan and nodded. Lan murmured into the com attached to his lapel. He glanced back at J’kar and nodded.
“What? Oh, hello! You can understand me. I tell you, your language is quite complex. If FRED hadn’t been so cooperative I don’t know if I would have ever figured it out. You know…” The voice said with building enthusiasm.
“Who in the name of all the gods and goddesses is this?” J’kar demanded. He fists tightened into tight balls as he fought the urge to put one through the com panel.
“Oh. Sorry, dear. I’m RITA. I’m Tink’s guardian angel of sorts. Well, a combination of that and her mom.” RITA said cheerfully. “Do you realize this is an absolutely amazing piece of engineering? I’ve never been on a spaceship before and the programming running it is… well, positively decadent!”
“What are you doing on my ship and where is the female…Tink?” J’kar asked in a strained voice.
“Oh, Tink is back on Earth. I uploaded myself to your computer when Tink was taking pictures. I figured you were going to need my help if you wanted to get her back. You know I saw, well, not really saw but I could tell from your respiration you were attracted to her. She is such a joy and…” RITA was just getting going when J’kar interrupted her again.
“Earth. What are the coordinates? What do you mean get her back? You can get her back?” For the first time since Tink disappeared J’kar felt a small hope.
“Well, it is a little too far to go if what I’ve been able to gather from FRED is our current coordinates. Using the portal is the only reasonable form of transportation to get back and forth from what I can tell. Although, I really do need to learn a little more before I can be one hundred percent sure.” RITA mused.
“Will this portal take me to Tink? To the man who took her from me?” J’kar asked through gritted teeth. He wanted to find the man who took Tink and kill him. Then he was going to get Tink and make sure nothing ever took her away from him again.
“Oh, you mean Cosmos? You know, you should be thanking him. If you hurt Cosmos Tink would never forgive you! She’s loved him for years. Cosmos is the one who invented the portal.” RITA said sternly. She could tell from the different pitches in J’kar’s voice he wasn’t feeling too friendly toward Cosmos. It would never do if she got them together just to have J’kar kill Cosmos. Why, he was like her son! No, that would never do.
“If you want my help you have to promise not to hurt anyone when you go to get Tink, especially Cosmos. Tink is very protective of him.” RITA said in her most no-nonsense voice.
“What is this portal you mentioned?” Borj asked. He thought it would be best to steer the conversation towards more useful information. “And who is this FRED you talk about?”
“FRED? Oh, well, since I’ve been in your computer system I knew I needed to learn and adapt to the information available. The best way was to modify your system to interact with mine. I couldn’t go around calling it computer this or that, so I named it FRED for Foreign Relations Entity Dignitary, FRED for short. I was able to upload my basic artificial intelligence adaptive program Tink’s mom developed. Now, I have a better understanding of your language and programming. The portal is a time-space transportation portal Cosmos has been working on. It bends space and time using a complex formula allowing a dimensional doorway to open. As the traveler passes through a scan of their DNA is locked into the system allowing the portal to find them when it is activated. The device you have in your hand is a remote portal but we haven’t been able to get it to work right yet. It can be used in cases of emergency to open a portal if the main portal is unable to locate a person’s DNA.”
“Do you have the schematic for the portal in your programming?” Brock asked. His hand tightened on the metal device. Brock turned toward J’kar, speaking quickly. “If we can get a copy of the schematics I might be able to replicate the portal device and we can use the coordinates to find the female.”
“We could find females for all of us.” Derik said with a grin. He couldn’t wait. He looked at some of the images Lan shown his brother and there were a few females in the images he wouldn’t mind meeting.
“RITA? Do you have the schematics?” J’kar asked not realizing he was holding his breath waiting for the computer to respond.
“Of course, dear. Well, most of it anyway. There will need to be modifications done but since I helped with some of the development of the project I should be able to help you with FRED’s help, of course.” RITA responded brightly.
“Download the program to our computers and assist Brock on the building of the device. I want it done as soon as possible.” J’kar ordered briskly.
He turned to Brock. “Assign whatever extra help you need to engineering. I want this portal operational as soon as possible.” Brock nodded his head in affirmation before hurrying out of the room.
“Derik, I want you to work with RITA on developing a translation program of the Earth’s language to work with our translators. It is imperative we can communicate with those we meet.”
Derik stood up. He felt proud his brother recognized he expertise with language translation and programming. He felt for the first time he was a true member of the crew. Nodding to his brother, Derik replied. “I’ll get right on it.”
“Lan, did you get anything on RITA?” J’kar asked.
“A scan of the computer shows no malicious viruses or other anomalies. In fact, the software seems to be learning and adapting at a rapid rate. It has already implemented some minor changes to our translation programming already which should help Derik.” Lan responded with a slight frown. “I would like to study the changes more in depth. I am assuming I will also need more information on the inhabitants of Earth if we are going to retrieve the female. I need to know what security measures will be best when dealing with them.”
“Very well, I want a report in four ho
urs on your progress.” J’kar said.
He stood and walked over to the windows staring out at the rich blackest of space. Lost in thought he did not hear Lan leave the room or his brother, Borj, move to stand next to him. He started when he felt the hand on his shoulder.
Turning his head he glanced at Borj. Borj let his hand drop. “We will find her.”
“Yes.” J’kar said nodding his head toward the images on the table. “There are other possible bond mates to our men. We must be successful.”
Borj looked at the image on top. It was an image with three females on it, all of them smiling. The one named Tink was in the middle. The other two females were similar in appearance to Tink but the one on the left caught and held Borj’s attention. She was slightly taller than the other two and had twin golden-brown braids on each side of her head hanging to her waist. She was wearing very short, tan pants ending mid-thigh, two small triangular pieces of fabric barely covered her breasts, and boots. All three were standing on a rock outcropping with what appeared to be a wide expanse of water behind them. It was very bright around them and the sky and water were a brilliant combination of light and dark blues. Small plants of green, yellow, and pink were scattered in the rocks around the females. Borj couldn’t take his eyes off the taller female. He picked up the image as he walked by slipping it into the pocket of his uniform top. Yes, they would be successful. He had a feeling his brother’s future was not the only one who might depend on it.
Chapter 9
Cosmos spent the last two hours poring over everything he could download from RITA from before Tink walked through the portal to what little he was able to get from her time on the ship. The portal opened into an unknown galaxy. He had RITA search all known star clusters and galaxies and she hadn’t found anything yet. In addition, he was reviewing the technology he saw during his brief glimpse. RITA hadn’t been of very much help as she had been in the process of uploading herself to the alien space craft and had not been fully functional. He had a little bit of what she was able to analyze but the cell phone memory was limited and RITA was basically trying to decipher her own shorthand. He found nothing on the markings on Tink’s left hand and that worried him. Grimacing as he took a sip of cold coffee, Cosmos stood up and stretched. He ran a hand through his hair and picked up his coffee cup. Walking to the small kitchen area in the lab, he poured his cold coffee down the sink and filled it up with two hour fresh coffee from the carafe. Leaning back against the counter, Cosmos closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose trying to relieve some of the strain he felt.
“Hey, you okay?” Tink’s soft voice asked.
Dropping his hand, Cosmos opened his eyes to see Tink standing in front of him. She was still wearing the white T-shirt, black jeans, and no shoes. Cosmos set his cup on the counter next to him and held his arms open. A smile danced around Tink’s lips as she moved into the comfort of Cosmos strong arms and broad chest. The smile faded when she thought of another set of arms and even broader chest. She had the weirdest feeling she should be wrapped in another man’s arms.
“I could ask you the same thing. Are you feeling any better?” Cosmos asked as he held Tink tightly in his arms.
He loved her so much. He felt if he ever had a chance to have a little sister it would have been Tink. He couldn’t shake the feeling his experiment had somehow put her in danger. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her. Tilting her chin up to look up at him, he pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“You look better.” He teased.
Laughing, Tink ran her fingers over Cosmos sides tickling him. Tink laughed even harder when he yelped and tried to get away from her. “Did you save me any coffee?” Tink reached for Cosmos coffee cup pulling it towards her and taking a sip.
“Hey, get your own!” Cosmos said acting outraged. He smiled again, glad to have Tink safe.
“So, what did you figure out while I was acting out Sleeping Beauty’s hundred year sleep upstairs?” Tink sat in one of the rolling chairs. She tucked one foot under her and used the other one to turn back and forth.
“Not much I’m afraid. The extra power you were able to produce from the generator gave the portal just enough power to activate it. The power company is going to love me this month!” Cosmos said with a small chuckle. The electric company loved him every month.
“Yeah, if the cops don’t bust you first thinking you are a major grow house or meth-lab!” Tink teased.
Since the sheriff and half the force were friends with Cosmos and her that wasn’t a real possibility. It was always nice to have friends in the right places. Especially when some of your experiments took up enough power to power a small city block; you needed to make sure you didn’t get busted in the middle of one. Known for some really cool Halloween, Christmas, and New Year’s get-togethers they often hosted parties for the community. Of course, those parties often had ample special effects with a wiz like Cosmos at the helm and Tink’s expertise with power grids.
“Do you remember anything about the mark on your hand?” Cosmos asked noticing Tink was rubbing her left hand up and down her jeans.
“Not really. I remember grabbing his hand…What?” Tink asked when she noticed Cosmos’ eyebrow lift. “Give me a break! I had never been on a space ship in outer space before and I didn’t think! I grabbed the guy’s hand for crying out loud! I didn’t jump his bones and make mad passionate love to him on the bridge of the frigging ship.” Tink turned a bright shade of pink as she was talking.
“From the look of your face, that might have been a possibility.” Cosmos commented dryly.
Twirling around in the chair and standing Tink walked over to the railing overlooking the portal. “You’re right, it was a possibility.” Tink said as she stared down at her hand remembering J’kar’s dark features.
Turning back around to face Cosmos, Tink blinked up at him as if coming out of a daze. “I felt a jolt. Like electricity running up my arm and moving throughout my body. It was like I had suddenly come alive for the first time. I think he felt the same thing. It was like looking at everything through new eyes and all I could see was him. I tried to ignore it. I had never felt that way about anyone before and I had just met the man. For heaven’s sake,” Tink said with a small, self-conscious laugh, “He’s an alien! We were just trying to figure out each other’s name. You know, you Tarzan, me Jane, type of communication! How could I feel anything for someone I just met, who I just touched one time? Anyway, my palm started burning and itching. When I looked down these circles started showing up. What was I supposed to do? Ask him if he gave me some kind of alien cooties or something? Oh, and by the way, have you been practicing safe sex because I have circles showing up on my hand?” Tink added sarcastically.
“God, I feel like I’m going crazy!” Tink said slamming the coffee cup down so hard some of it spilt over the side onto the console top.
Running both hands through her hair she pulled her left hand down to study it. “Cosmos, what am I going to do?” Tink whispered looking at Cosmos for help and reassurance.
Tink looked so confused and frighten Cosmos didn’t know what to say. Whatever happened when the alien man touched Tink it had some type of psycho-emotional effect on her. It was tearing him up seeing her look so vulnerable.
“Maybe it will disappear after a few days.” Cosmos replied.
Cosmos didn’t know what else to say. Maybe being away from the alien environment would cause whatever happened between Tink and the man to simply disappear. Cosmos hoped the marks on Tink would vanish after a few days. He just hoped the markings weren’t caused by something parasitic. Just the thought some parasitic creature could be inside Tink made Cosmos feel physically ill. He would see if he could get a tissue sample and test it. For right now, Tink looked so hopeful he didn’t have the heart to suggest it. Maybe he would wait until she was asleep again to get it.
“Why don’t we go out and get a bite to eat down at Helena’s? I could go for a nice juicy stea
k and you haven’t eaten anything all day.” Cosmos suggested as he wrapped his arm around Tink.
“Sounds good. Give me a minute to get my shoes and purse and I’ll meet you downstairs.” Tink replied with a small smile. She needed the distraction and getting out of the warehouse for a little while might help clear her brain.
Dinner at Helena’s was always a good time. An old fashion eatery, Helena’s had simple food but lots of it. An old jukebox stood in the corner playing oldies from the 50’s and 60’s. Red and white checkered table tops with matching red booth seats made from fake leather helped add to the feeling of being in a 1950 era diner. Helena’s was now owned by Ralph Barker. He was the perfect man for the job as he thought of himself as the reincarnation of one of the guys from the movie Grease. He wore a tight white t-shirt over his thin frame, high-water jeans, a black leather jacket and had his thin hair dyed black and greased back. At almost seventy years old, Ralph loved to remind people he had actually lived the time period. It didn’t hurt he also loved socializing with all the customers, especially the ladies.