by John Coon
“This lighter should do the trick,” he said.
Xttra emerged from nearby trees carrying an armload of dried branches and twigs. He deposited the pile inside the fire pit. Kevin sprinted back across the road with lighter in hand. He pushed down on the button and clicked the wheel until a flame appeared and then pressed the lighter against the topmost twigs. A puff of gray smoke billowed skyward from the pile. Soon, small yellowish-orange flames licked twigs and sticks alike. Xttra tossed in more wood to feed the fire. Flames spread to the sides of the pit.
Calandra left the car and joined the others at the fire pit. She stood straight across from Xttra. At that point, Xttra began to recite words only he and Calandra recognized and understood.
“He must have deactivated his translator,” Collin said. “What's Xttra saying?”
Her eyes remained transfixed on Xttra and the fire. Calandra mouthed the same words he spoke. She only glanced over at Collin once Xttra finished speaking.
“He is addressing Ahm, the Divine Creator and ruler of both the living and dead. His prayer asks Ahm to receive the souls of Lance, Atch, and Jbali. He also pleads with Ahm to accept Lance’s sacrifice on our behalf.”
Once Xttra recited the prayer, he stooped down. With his bare hand, he scooped up a clump of loose soil. Then, Xttra spoke a second time. Upon saying these latest words, he cast the soil resting in his hand into the flames. A small plume of smoke and dust rose from the spot where it landed.
“Now he acknowledges our bodies came from the soil,” Calandra said, continuing her translation once Xttra paused again. “He symbolically separated body and soul. The smoke represents the soul rising to dwell with Ahm.”
Xttra knelt before the fire pit. He removed a small vial from his belt. The vial was twice the width of a metal rod, but only half the length. Xttra poured a few drops of water on the ground at his feet. Then he scooped wet soil onto his fingertips and smeared it across his forehead.
“Now he signifies death is universal and all who witness this rite will one day make the same journey.”
Xttra raised the open vial above his head. He spoke in the Confederation Universal language a third time as he bowed his head. Xttra then lowered his arm and poured the remaining water across his forehead. With his hand, he brushed the remaining water and soil from his skin.
“He expresses faith in the Creator's promise that all who die will be reborn as beings possessing a perfect body and a perfect soul in Ahm's due time.”
Collin and Kevin both stared at the fire pit now. Reflected images of wild yellowish-orange flames danced across their eyes.
“Incredible,” Collin said. He turned and faced Calandra again. “Since I've met you two, you've broken every stereotypical image I ever had in my mind about extraterrestrial beings.”
“I guess we both share that sentiment.”
His smile dissolved into a frown. Her tone made it clear Calandra did not intend her statement to be a compliment.
Kevin and Xttra doused the fire and the group set out on their journey again. Their trek took them up the same winding canyon road they traveled down a night earlier.
Collin peppered Xttra and Calandra with questions about life on their home planet as the car cut through the smaller alien city near the Earthian base. He wanted to know about everything – law, economics, culture, geography, history. Calandra shared many things she knew about Lathos. Xttra wondered how she had enough energy to do it in her condition. He lost interest in their discussion after only two or three questions.
A long beep sounded as the car climbed another small canyon road. The entire screen on Xttra's thermal tracker lit up. They neared the designated coordinates. He tapped Kevin on the shoulder and pointed to a narrow dirt road winding through a pocket of trees branching off from the main road.
“Here's the road we need to take,” Xttra said. “My ship is hidden among a patch of trees in a meadow near the top of the mountain.”
Kevin squinted at the road and frowned.
“We're gonna need to park and walk. Those ruts will be a little rough for this sedan to handle.”
Ruts?
Xttra’s eyes darted from the tracker to the dirt road ahead. Two parallel ruts carved into damp soil that formed the road. Each rut cut deep. Muddy puddles occupied space inside both ruts. A series of heavy vehicles had cut their way up the narrow mountain road and deep into the forest.
His breathing quickened. Xttra froze and stared at them wide-eyed.
“There were no ruts when Lance and I flew over this spot in our aerorover.”
Kevin shut off the car engine and stepped outside to get a closer look. He stooped down and his forehead creased as he examined both ruts. When Kevin straightened up again and returned to the car, worry also washed over his face.
“I don't think we're alone up here.”
Calandra's eyes burned with renewed fear.
“What do you mean?”
“There's a trap waiting up there for us.”
Xttra switched settings on his thermal tracker. It brought up heat patterns for everyone inside the car and displayed coordinates for each one.
“What does that device do?” Collin asked, glancing down at the tracker.
“It identifies human and animal species through reading their body heat patterns,” Xttra said. “It can detect anything within a 25-kilometer radius, according to your Earth measurements. I only need to broaden the scanning field to include the area around my ship.”
Xttra made the necessary adjustments on his tracker and zeroed in on those coordinates. All eyes inside the car became glued to the screen. Each set widened as the tracker confirmed what they all feared was true.
One human heat pattern after another popped up. The tracker now detected at least 20 Earthians around the scout ship.
Silence grew at an uncomfortable rate inside the car. Calandra finally pierced it by voicing a reality that entered everyone's minds, but no one else wanted to acknowledge aloud.
“They found our ship.”
Her voice quavered at forcing out those words. Xttra shared the fear woven into that sentence. Earth Defense Bureau agents and Kevin's fellow soldiers uncovered their landing spot. The masking system Xttra employed somehow failed in his absence and made their scout ship vulnerable to detection from Earth tracking systems.
“What do we do now?” Kevin asked. “We can’t go up that road without running the risk of getting ourselves captured. Or killed.”
“We need to draw them away from the ship.”
“How?”
Xttra stared back at the twin ruts stone-faced. No satisfactory answer to that question popped into his mind. His scout ship had fallen into enemy hands and Xttra had no idea how to get it back.
For the moment, he and Calandra were trapped on an alien planet with no way home.
37
When Kevin translated the road sign as the car passed it, Xttra noted an irony contained within those words. Welcome Hideout, Utah. The sign itself had a rustic feel. It hung suspended from a wooden arch supported by two cylindrical brick pillars. A painted image of a lake bordering the community adorned the sign, wedged between the words welcome and hideout.
The town's name stuck in his mind. They were hiding out in an Earth village called Hideout.
Xttra hoped this place delivered what its name promised. They needed a safe hiding spot to give them enough time to devise a foolproof plan for taking back the scout ship.
No suspicious looking vehicles followed them to this village. Kevin turned down a winding road lined with a series of large buildings. Each one followed the same basic design pattern with minor variations. Peaked roofs. Brick exterior with large windows in front. A small covered porch leading to a large door. Their car passed half a dozen buildings on each side of the road before Kevin at last turned onto a short gray stone path leading to one. He parked the car and turned off the engine.
“Here we are. Home sweet home.”
“This is
your townhouse?”
Collin made zero effort to disguise rising skepticism in his voice. Kevin shot him an irritated glare and popped open his door.
“Not exactly,” he said, while climbing out of the car. “My aunt and uncle live here. They're out of town on a Mediterranean cruise for a few weeks, so we should have the place to ourselves.”
“In other words, you're going to crash inside their house without their knowledge,” Collin said. “This isn't what I call laying low.”
Kevin slammed the door and threw up his hands in an exaggerated motion.
“Good hell. Who asked you to be the angel on my shoulder? Calandra and Xttra need a place to stay until we get their ship back. And I don't hear you proposing better alternatives.”
“I'd feel better if your aunt or uncle had consented to us making ourselves at home in their home.”
“Well, they aren't exactly around to sign off on it, are they?” Kevin shouted. “If staying here bothers you so bad, feel free to hit the road at any time.”
Collin had no other response except to sit and fume in silence. A slight grin appeared on Kevin's face as he turned away. Xttra figured he gained some satisfaction from winning their argument. Collin would find a reason to attack him about something else later. Their arguments were never-ending.
Calandra wore a concerned frown as Xttra helped her out of the backseat. He knew his girlfriend well enough to understand Kevin's insistence on stealing a car, then clothes, and now breaking into another person's home ate at her conscience. Calandra had always been honest to a fault from the day he first met her. Under normal circumstances, Xttra would share her feelings. These were not normal circumstances.
Kevin was doing everything in his power to help them survive long enough to retake their scout ship and return home. Hatching a plan to do these things with a realistic chance of success would take time. If that required hiding out in a stranger's house to elude the Earth Defense Bureau, Xttra felt no guilt in doing what needed to be done for their survival. Calandra and Collin both needed to consider the context of their situation. Kevin was keeping them alive from aliens who wanted them dead.
Kevin climbed the front steps and jiggled the front door handle. It did not budge. He lifted a mat sitting in front of the door and then turned over a small hollowed-out rock hugging the lowest porch step. Kevin shook his head and muttered some angry words Xttra could not decipher. He finally turned around and pointed at him.
“What tool did you use to slice through that cell back on post?”
Xttra glanced down at the cutter on his belt.
“Why do you ask?”
“It will save us a lot of time if I don't need to pick these locks,” Kevin said.
He blew out his cheeks and unlocked a clasp holding the cutter in place on his belt. Xttra drew it from a sheath and approached the screen door where the ranger stood. Kevin directed him to cut into a front-facing window, next to the door.
“I hope you know what you're doing,” Xttra said. “Cutting holes into doors or windows will make it more obvious we don't belong here.”
He pressed a button on the cutter handle. Kevin let out a low whistle after seeing a blue laser shoot out from micro ports on both sides and then circle the blade for the first time.
“Damn. That's one hell of a cutting tool.”
Xttra pressed the laser reinforced cutting edge against a section of glass and cut out a large square. Once the laser made a final incision, Kevin lifted the piece of glass out and set it aside below the window. He crawled through the new opening. Xttra wondered how they would repair the fresh hole. He did not have the right tools on hand to do it himself and they had no guarantee finding what they needed inside the townhouse.
Kevin turned the lock and threw open the front door a few seconds later. He flashed a grin.
"Piece of a cake. I present to you one genuine ready-made hideout."
Once everyone went inside, Kevin scoured the garage for a flat board to nail over the bottom half of the window. He secured it in place while Xttra helped Calandra find a downstairs bedroom where she could rest. He hated seeing her in this condition. Breaking multiple bones robbed Calandra of her usual joyful energy. If he was honest with himself, Xttra also changed – and not for the better.
Now he understood how it felt to walk in Lance's shoes. A part of Lance died when most of his crew perished on the asteroid. Xttra harbored a similar feeling. Three fallen crew members. Another lay in a medical coma inside the captured scout ship. Doni's treachery only made things worse. It created a greater ordeal than one man should endure. Why did Ahm toss him into this fire and then force him to walk through the scorching flames? Xttra yearned for an answer to that puzzling question. He had no clue where to search for one.
He sat on a front room window seat and rested against the wall. A small orange cat cut across green grass in front of the townhouse. His eyes trailed the Earth animal as it hopped atop a short brown wood fence and disappeared into the yard of a neighboring townhouse. A colossal sense of guilt settled on Xttra as he pondered what he should have done differently that would have kept his crew alive.
“You probably don't need to stand guard. It will be a while before anyone figures out where we are.”
Xttra swung his head away from the window. Collin walked out of the kitchen toward him, holding an open can in his hand. He plunked down on the other end of the window seat and faced him.
“They had no trouble tracking us down in the mountains where we first landed,” Xttra said. “I'm not underestimating your people at this point.”
“Why did your crew member turn against you? It doesn't make any sense.”
Xttra responded with a half-shrug and shook his head. He turned and gazed out the window again.
“He concealed something important from me. I think he intended to strand me here on Earth, so I didn't find out his secret.”
Collin nodded when Xttra glanced at him again, but a puzzled look also washed over his face. He realized a more detailed explanation was required.
“I didn't trust him from the moment we met before this expedition started,” he said. “I suspected he was a spy planted in our ranks. My suspicions were hammered home when Calandra caught him snooping through my personal Stellar Guard file.”
“Your personal Stellar Guard file?”
“I locked him out of all key systems and vowed to monitor him until we left Earth. Then your soldiers showed up and captured him. I guess, at that point, he decided to collaborate with your fellow Earthians so he could destroy me.”
A loud cocking sound filled the room. Xttra and Collin both snapped their heads toward the source of the sound. Kevin emerged from the hall carrying a long-barreled weapon. It bore a resemblance to the rifle he used during their escape from the base. Kevin raised the weapon and peered through a scope mounted atop the barrel.
“Thank god we're in a state filled with gun owners. My aunt and uncle have assimilated with their hive mind.”
Collin took a long look at it and rolled his eyes.
“We have a rifle. I feel so much safer now.”
“Piss off!” Kevin snapped. “One weapon is much better than none.”
Xttra smirked and tapped an armored sleeve.
“I still have numerous weapons.”
Kevin pulled his eyes away from the scope. He cracked a smile and set the rifle down, leaning it against the wall.
“And each one is a brutal little bastard.”
“Is that the only Earth weapon you found?”
Xttra glanced past Kevin's shoulder and down the hall while he spoke. He silently hoped the ranger uncovered a hidden cache of weapons while combing through the townhouse.
They needed one.
“I found a couple of hunting knives in a back room. Not much else. And this thirty-aught-six only has one box of bullets left from what I can see.”
“Better than nothing,” Xttra said. “At least we have enough weapons for everyone here.”
/>
Collin slammed down his now half-empty can on the window seat and raised his arms.
“Count me out. I'm a strict pacifist. Guns have a nasty habit of killing the wrong people at the wrong time.”
Kevin scrunched up his face and shook his head.
“Are you a liberal pansy every day? Or just the ones where I'm forced to be around you?”
Collin sighed. He cleaned the lenses in his glasses with his shirttail. After sliding them back on his nose, he sprang up from the window seat and started down the hallway. Collin ducked into a small office and appeared again clutching his laptop bag. He refused to look at Kevin, focusing his eyes and attention solely on Xttra at the window seat.
“It's a good thing I had the presence of mind to grab my laptop before we fled the base. We can see what's on that flash drive Calandra discovered on the probe sent to your people.”
Collin removed both laptop and flash drive from the bag. He plopped down on a nearby brown leather couch and strung out a white power cord before tossing it toward an outlet.
“Be a dear and plug it in for me.”
Sarcasm dripped from each word as he stared at Kevin. The ranger scowled and jammed the cord into the outlet. Collin booted up his laptop and inserted the flash drive into a port. Xttra hopped off the window seat and grabbed a seat next to him on the couch, so he could view the message. He also pulled out his holocaster to make a recording for Calandra to watch later.
Collin's eyes grew wide like plates when he saw what appeared on the screen.
“I don't believe what I'm seeing.” His voice grew somber. “How could they do this?”
“What's on the flash drive?” Kevin asked.
He walked over and leaned on the back of the couch while joining them in peering at the images flashing across the screen. Xttra's eyes stayed glued to the images. A frown gracing his lips deepened.
A rapid-fire montage of smiling faces appeared. Each person shared a greeting in a different language. Images of animals, buildings, and landscapes followed, no doubt drawn from various places on Earth. Then, an astronaut descended from a small capsule onto the surface of Earth's moon while saying: “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”