A Man For Jenna

by Beth Sadler

  Chapter 5

  Zabron finished his call to Teril then looked over at Jenna to fill her in.

  "Teril has scanned the immediate area and there are no heat signatures here other than us, however, there are four signatures in three different co-ordinates about four miles from here." He sat musing on the problem for a minute. Jenna sat quietly not wanting to disturb his thoughts; this was clearly his area of expertise.

  Looking confidently into Jenna's eyes he made a decision. "I think now would be a good time for you to try and contact Jason. We can't afford to waste time searching in the wrong direction." He smiled gently, sending her a look of absolutely faith and trust. "Start your humming detector up, my little fairy. Jason needs you now"

  Jenna felt her heart jerk at his words. She was very afraid that she was stupidly falling for this handsome alien. He probably had a host of women chasing him and they would all be tall and stunning. Here she was a short, weird, dateless spinster who didn't stand a chance with him. Ah well, time to get to work and do what she had set out to do, Jason was the priority here.

  Sitting cross legged on the bench, Jenna tuned out all the sounds around her and went inside herself. That was the only way she could explain what happened--she went to a place inside her mind and opened a door. Slowly a hum of sound came through, a choked off sob, a cry for help and then more sobs. Jenna called Jason's name over and over. Finally his sobs stopped and he seemed to be listening. "You're not going mad, Jason, I can hear your thoughts. I'm coming for you, stay where you are. Do you hear me? Don't move from where you are. Answer me if you can hear me. Just tell me you can hear me and what you see in the bush around you. We need help to find you, Jason."

  Faintly, a hesitant voice came back to Jenna. "I hurt my leg when I fell down the bank, now I can't climb back up. I was trying to get some water from the creek, I'm so thirsty. Please help me." Another sob followed his words then-- "Promise me I'm not imagining this. Please promise me." More sobs followed as Jenna tried to think of a way to convince Jason that, he wasn't going mad. Looking up into the sky she got an idea. Hurriedly she switched her attention back to Zabron.

  "Zabron, can you get Teril to shine a red light into the sky for a few seconds?" Zabron nodded his head in agreement, seeming to understand immediately why it was needed. He uttered terse words into his com-watch, then, held his ten fingers up to show her the countdown.

  Jenna opened the door and went back to Jason. More sobs met her return. "Shush Jason, it's OK, I'm back now. I only went away to arrange a signal for you. Now, look up into the sky and you'll see a red light that's just for you. It will only shine for a few seconds but, it is proof that you're not alone or going mad. Now look up and I'll count down for you." Jenna watched Zabron's fingers get down to five then started counting them off for Jason. Bang on one, a red light shone straight up over the tree tops, reaching into the sky. Jason's sigh of relief warmed Jenna's heart. She went back to Jason with new determination. It had worked, now to get more information.

  Ten minutes later Jenna and Zabron were jogging along the path towards Lightening Falls. Incredibly Jason had wandered kilometres away from his lunchtime stop. His talk of water had helped Teril zoom in on a heat signature near the falls. They were moving fast as, they were now worried that Jason's injuries would send him into severe shock.

  Zabron was elated that Jenna could keep up with him. It was strange as, the average Earthling usually couldn't come close to matching a Teeronite for strength and speed. So far the Teeron research assumed that the lack of pollution on Teeron and the vegetarian diet was the reason behind their extreme good health. "Might be time to re-evaluate," thought Zabron.

  Forty five minutes later Jenna began to slow down. Zabron looked back, a frown furrowing his brow.

  "Are you OK? Have I pushed you too hard?"

  "No way, I'm fine but, I can hear Jason very clearly now so I think we need to slow down in case we run right past him. How about shining your flashlight into the bush and I'll get Jason to try and spot it?"

  "Good idea little fairy," Zabron spoke into his backpack as he searched it for his torch. "Got it, OK ask Jason to look for the light and give us some directions." Zabron slowly turned in a circle watching Jenna for directions.

  "Stop, over that way." Jenna pointed in a direction to the left off the path. "He left the path because he heard the waterfall and needed a drink."

  They made their way carefully through the thick bush towards the edge of the creek. A part of the bank was crumbled away. Jenna lay down on the edge and, taking Zabron's torch, she scanned along the creek bed looking for any sign of Jason.

  "Nothing here, I was so sure we were close." Getting to her feet she started calling his name. "Jason, Jason, Jason answer if you can hear me." The silence was frightening.

  "Jenna, try calling with your mind again. He might not be able to speak."

  "OK."

  Jenna sat down in the dirt and concentrated on getting a clear connection.

  "Jason we're here. Please tell me where you are. I've been calling you over and over." A hesitant voice came back to her.

  "I thought I was answering you. I can hear you but, I've got used to you talking to me in my mind so I forgot to shout out loud. I'll start calling now." Jenna was overjoyed and bubbling with excitement.

  "We've found him he thought he was answering us. He'll shout out loud now, please shine the torch again." Zabron answered her smile with one of his own.

  "Here goes, get ready to pinpoint him." Switching on the torch, Zabron went through the slow circling again. Jason's feeble shout came from around a bend in the creek.

  Climbing down the bank to the creek bed wasn't easy but, they accomplished it without falling. Not so Jason. They found him wet and cold, huddled into the creek bank, his right leg twisted at an impossible angle. Zabron bent over the leg, checking the injury with his torch while Jenna hugged Jason close as he cried in relief.

  "Hail Hera, you have made a nice mess of this leg young man."

  Giving Jenna a concerned look he whispered to her, "He'll need to have emergency treatment for this leg." Jenna watched, saying nothing, waiting to hear his decision. "We'll need to get a transporter over here to pick us up. Hail Hera, what a disaster," he said worriedly.

  Jason clung to Jenna, gradually calming as her warmth flowed into his cold body. Opening her backpack Jenna dug in and brought out a bottle of water and a sandwich.

  "Here Jason, have a drink and eat a little, you need nourishment to help you warm up."

  Jason obediently drank half the bottle of water in one gulp; most of the sandwich went down in the same way.

  "What is your friend saying? I can understand you but, your friend is speaking a foreign language." Hugging him close, Jenna tried to reassure him.

  "My friend is Swedish and speaks very little English, luckily I understand him. He's a very nice man, and is the one who wanted to search for you tonight so that you wouldn't have to spend the night in the bush."

  Jenna flashed a glowing smile in Zabron's direction. "What do we do next?"

  "We call up the reinforcements and try and work out how to get our guest on board a transporter without him knowing anything about it." Zabron was tense with worry as he continued. "Jenna this is a big problem for us. We never expose unwilling minds to our presence but, this boy urgently needs the medical help that we have onboard."

  "I think I can help, let me talk to Jason before you call Teril."

  "I will cross my fingers. Is that the correct expression?"Zabron smiled wryly.

  Jenna returned his smile and then went back into Jason's mind.

  Jenna asked Jason for his co-operation, explaining that he needed to rest from the pain. Because it would hurt when they moved him, she instructed him to sleep until she asked him to wake-up, promising all would be well. Jason immediately went to sleep.

  Zabron felt his jaw drop. "That is one handy little trick. Please don't ever do it to me." Jenna frowned at him.<
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  "I've never done it before, didn't know I could. But, I don't think it would work unless you trusted me and wanted to sleep. Anyway you can call in your transporter now." She dismissed the subject with a wave of her hand. Worrying about how weird she was becoming could wait.

  Zabron was already speaking into the com-watch.