by Dane Bagley
Steve could hear conversation and laughter as he walked down the corridor. He listened intently as the two women spoke. Aspiria was speaking nearly-perfect American English. Over the past several days her exaggerated nasally tone had disappeared. She now enunciated almost accent-free. With a careful ear, a subtle accent could be heard, yet even this seemed to be disappearing as the days went by. This conversation that he was eves dropping on, though originating in another room, sounded like two American women speaking with no sign of an accent at all. Aspiria’s vocabulary was increasing so steadily, that she never even stumbled for a word. By comparison, his ability to communicate with her in her language was rudimentary at best. He was beginning to put sentences together with simple words, but even then, he knew that his pronunciation was horrific. His ability to even produce the sounds was pathetic at best. Still, he knew that this was of prime importance. Language experts from around the world were analyzing the recordings of her language, but they were at a loss without Aspiria’s explanations. Steve was getting a one-on-one tutorial, and she was an excellent teacher. This was one of the most critical aspects of the current mission. He would work his hardest to continue to grasp and then report on the alien language.
The other major concern, from Command, was the fact that Aspiria seemed to have an awareness of the earth, which she claimed to have prior to being captured. This had warranted a direct conversation between Steve and the President. It was a fact that via the tablet that Aspiria had had access to, she could have learned a lot about the earth. She was not always closely supervised while using the tablet; it was possible that she could have researched a lot in order to manipulate a way to get released. Her ability to learn and maintain information was extraordinary; her comprehension of English was already magnificent. Steve was not convinced that she was manipulative. She had been very direct with him in regards to her desires; beyond that, he felt something when she spoke about religion and spirituality. It did not feel contrived at all. But he would be required to investigate this completely.
Upon entering the lab, he was pleasantly surprised to see that not only was Aspiria all made up, but Tammy was too. Tammy had on a short, low-cut, spaghetti-strapped red dress, and high heels. He had never seen her dressed like that before. “Wow, what’s the occasion!”
“We’ve been shooting photos and videos for public release. I didn’t want Aspiria to get all of the attention.”
“I won’t even be noticed with you wearing that,” Aspiria commented.
“Aspiria doesn’t think that a woman should show so much skin. She says that it gives the wrong idea to people, and it isn’t good for men’s eyes.”
“You are much too beautiful as you are. Dressing like this doesn’t increase your beauty; it focuses attention to your body, instead of your beauty.” Aspiria was direct, but kindly in her tone. Tammy, for her part, found it entertaining and comical.
“I don’t know, Aspiria, I’m pretty impressed right now!” said Steve.
“I prove my point,” Tammy said with a smile.
“Could you bring your tablet, Aspiria? I have some things that I need to talk with you about. If you could get everything set up on the table, I’ll be with you in a moment.”
Aspiria went to her cell.
Steve and Tammy began to speak softly. “You look stunning, Tammy. I wish that I could take you out for the night. I’m afraid that I have nowhere to take you. Even on the planet, I doubt that we could get away without getting caught. Somehow, I think, at least you would stand out looking like this!”
“I wish that we could go out, too. It was so fun getting all dressed up. Am I in, at least, the same league as her?”
“Who?”
She lightly punched him on the arm. “You know she’s beautiful.”
“Yes, but I only have eyes for you. Now, I’m afraid that the whole world will have eyes for you, too. Maybe it will generate some sympathy for me when our predicament becomes public.”
Tammy looked away and then back again. “I’m not going to let that happen. It isn’t fair to either one of us. We don’t need this now; you, me, or us. We are in the middle of something important.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not keeping this pregnancy. I never wanted to do this, but I can’t keep this baby.”
“I’m worried and scared, too. I know that it’s you that has to carry the baby, but it’s my baby, too. It’s our baby; it’s a part of us. I don’t think we should do that. I know, I don’t have a good solution, yet, but I don’t think that we should do that.”
“It will be better for us. We can work on our relationship, among all of the other stresses in our life. We won’t be forced together because of this. We can decide if we both want this, and enjoy all of the success that we are now having. It will solve all of the problems. I can have everything back to normal, and we won’t have any consequences.”
“If we make our relationship work, and we have a family someday, we will always know that we did this to one of our own. I can’t imagine looking at our children one day, and realizing that we did this to one of them. I don’t think it’s right. We made a mistake: there should be consequences.”
“Steve, I don’t think that you are thinking about this. I love you, and I don’t want to do this. But, like you say, sometimes you have to make choices; you have to take risks. For everything that we will gain, I think that we need to make this choice. I don’t want this baby right now. I don’t want to be in this situation. I have everything that I want right now, and this takes it all away; I don’t want to keep this pregnancy.”
“Tammy, I love you, too. We’ll talk more soon.” Steve sighed, then grinned. “You really look great! I need to talk with Aspiria. She’s right, though, I think that you’re burning my eyes with your beauty. I don’t know how I am going to concentrate.”
Aspiria was turned with her back to them sitting at the table now. Tammy leaned up and kissed Steve, and then he turned and went to talk with Aspiria.
“I need to talk with you, and this is very important. My commanders are very concerned about you knowing about the earth, that is, more than what we have told you. They are concerned that you knew that we existed, before we brought you to this ship. Did you read about the story of Jesus, or hear someone, like Danny, talking about it? Is that how you first heard about Jesus?”
“I don’t understand, Steve. He is the Son of God. What He did on your world had an effect on all of God’s worlds—on all of His children. We are His children, too; how would we not know about it?”
“I understand what you are saying, and I find it very interesting; but I need to know specifically: did you read or hear us talk about Jesus, before you asked me about it?”
“No, Steve, I did not. That is why I asked; I didn’t know what world you were from. Your world is the only world that I know anything about at all. I know that there are many worlds, but I know nothing about them, other than that they exist. Your world is special. Every world knows about your world.”
“Why is it that we don’t know about all of these other worlds, if they all know about us?”
“What do you mean that you don’t know about other worlds? You are the ones that are here, in this ship that was designed to study the children of other worlds. Tammy has shown me, and I have seen all of the elaborate ways that you have prepared for my being studied. If you didn’t know that there were other worlds, why would you have come here, and been so prepared?”
“We didn’t know, but we suspected,” he said contemplatively.
Aspiria sat back, and pondered. “I guess that you do come from a different perspective. All of the other worlds rely on events that took place on your world. Your world did not require anything that took place on another world. So you were not told about the other countless worlds of the creation?”
“I don’t know. I never really go to church, or read the bible. I really
don’t know about what God has told our world. I am a military man, and a man of science. We seek the truth by exploring, experimenting, and logic.”
“Truth is truth, Steve. It doesn’t matter what the source is; if it is true, it is true. You have something special on your world, Steve. Numberless people, on countless worlds, would do anything to peruse your bible, and read about the firsthand accounts of His life. You have it in front of you, and you don’t care what it says?”
“You’ve sparked an interest in me, I must admit. If it is true, what you say, then I would like to learn what He has said. Now, however, I need to look at your tablet with you. I need to look at the history of all that you have read.”
Steve pored through the history files, and looked at his log of events. It was clear that she was searching only language files—precisely what she had permission to search. Nothing looked suspicious at all and there was no evidence that she had been playing around with the history or settings. She was doing exactly what he thought she was doing. She had become quite adept at working on the tablet, but she was no computer genius; she often asked for help to do seemingly simple things. Her language genius did not translate to genius in all areas. “I must be certain: did you ever hear or talk with anyone aboard this ship about Jesus before you talked with me the other day?”
“Steve, I assure you that that was the first conversation that I ever had with any of you about God’s Son.”
“I’m sorry, but my commanders believe this to be very important, and they required me to ask you directly. I believe you, and I am not upset about this, but I did need to know.”
Aspiria smiled comfortably, the smile of a person with a clear conscious. Steve admired—even envied that about her. For all that he was, he was not a person with a clear conscience. He was racked internally, and it was getting worse. It was beginning to weigh more heavily on his mind, now that Tammy was considering aborting his child. He did not see how that would rectify the situation. It might allow him to hide his circumstances, but it would not make it all go away. Instead, it would add more heaviness to his heart; another weight to add to his growing burdens. He was conscious of the fact that this woman, Aspiria, was good and kind; yet, he had taken her from her home, her family, and put her into this situation. She returned this action by being honest and true. She treated everyone on this ship with kindness. When she requested that she be returned, and was continually told to wait, she continued in the same goodly manner. Steve had met many people that he admired, but she was unlike anyone that he had met before. If there is anything alien about her, it is that she returns evil with good; that doesn’t seem human at all, he thought.
“You speak nearly-perfect English now; that’s amazing! I need to practice in your tongue.” Steve had a greater ambition than before to learn her language. In part, it was because he so admired her that he wanted to take in something of her essence. He wanted to feel better about himself, and he transferred that desire to learning her language. He had an abstract, unconscious desire to atone for his circumstances—circumstances that he had brought upon himself, and he found that as he immersed himself in this project he did feel somewhat better inside. Today was a day of breakthroughs for him. His ability improved, and he found himself communicating at an increased level. Even Aspiria was impressed, and that made him feel good, also.
Upon leaving, he, feeling excited about his success, gave Aspiria a hug. She was uncomfortable about that, but did not say anything. She looked around to see if Tammy had seen it, and she had. Tammy did not look bothered, and that felt better to her. It was not her custom to hug a man that was not related to her, as she was a married woman. But, she could see that this custom did not seem to be the same among them. Still, she hoped that it would not happen again. “Why did he do that?” she asked as she walked up to Tammy.
“Do what?”
“He hugged me.”
“You were helping him to learn, and he had some good success. He was happy, and wanted to thank you. I’ve been going over our photos and videos. You are going to be a celebrity back on earth. Everyone knows about you, and they want to see you. Look at this one, I think we look great.”
“I don’t look any different than you. We are all the children of God, and we are in His image. Why does it matter what I look like?”
“They’ve never seen an alien before. The people on earth are getting scared. Our commanders think that if they see pictures and videos of you that you might settle them down. You are not scary, Aspiria.”
“Thank you. I’m glad that I don’t scare you. I don’t think that I have scared anyone before—although, all of you did seem frightened of me, at first. I remember going to the bathroom with guns pointed at me. I couldn’t understand what it was that you were scared of.”
“That’s right. We are not scared of you anymore, now that we know you. We want to help the rest of our people to know you, so that they will no longer fear you.”
“This is very strange. You come to our world, and yet your people are afraid of us. I don’t see how that can be. We would never harm you, or even want to travel to your world. We don’t know how to travel like this. There must be much sadness on your world, for the people to have so much fear.”
“I’m feeling sick again. Watch this one, I’ll be right back.” Aspiria tried to focus on the video, rather than the unpleasant sounds coming from the bathroom. After cleaning herself up, Tammy returned. “I hate that feeling. Did you have that?”
“You are with child, Tammy?”
Tammy looked down, and then gave her a smirk.
“Steve is the father? But you are not married, are you?”
“No, we are not married. We are not supposed to be together, on this ship. Please do not speak of this.”
Aspiria nodded knowingly. “It does not last long, for most women. I did not get very much sickness at all. I have known some women that it lasted for a while. I think that it is normal, what you are experiencing.”
“Yeah, it won’t be much longer.”
“You and Steve will make beautiful children; I do wish that you were married. It is better for the children, and for you.” Tammy did not acknowledge her last statement.
The women looked over the videos, and laughed. “You are sure that you want your whole world to see you in this dress?” Aspiria repeated.
Tammy looked over and smiled at her.
“Would you want this child that you are carrying, to see you like this? I would not want everyone to see me dressed like that, but I would be most concerned about my son seeing me like that. If you want to reconsider, I will do all of these videos again.”
“I think that I look great. I want the world to see me. We are both going to be world-famous.”
Chapter 37