The New Assault
Page 19
CHAPTER 28
Back at the Simmons’ home things were eerily quiet as Sam waited for some a response from Julia. He’d just told her how he’d probed her mind and peered into her deepest, darkest emotions. He’d expected fury at the very least over the solemn promise that he’d broken. He’d expected boiling anger, had prepared himself for it, but it didn’t come. Nothing came. Nothing except silent tears, and those had only come when Sam began to explain to Julia how her horrible experience with her parents had saved the world. He didn’t know what the tears meant and he wasn’t about to ask.
When Julia’s silence lasted long enough to become uncomfortable, Sam began to rise from his seat to give her some privacy. Now that the alien threat was no longer a threat, certainly they had all the time in the world to hash things out. But as soon as Sam stood to his feet Julia also leapt to hers and hugged his neck tightly. Soon, he could feel warm tears spilling upon the hollow of his shoulder. He was so surprised that he didn’t move for a few long moments and when he did move he slung his own arms around Julia very cautiously. “Looks like we’re both saviors now.” She said quietly
“I guess you’re right.” Sam answered. “It would seem that way.” He still didn’t understand what was going on. Why wasn’t she upset with him, even if what he did was for a supremely good cause? He decided to take the risk of asking.
“So many people go through horrible things and nothing good ever comes out of it. My horrible things saved the world. Who could ask for more?”
Sam smiled. This woman never ceased to amaze him. He had resisted the label of savior for as long as he could remember. He’d always considered it the pinnacle of selfishness to claim to be as high as everyone had always thought him to be. Not Julia. She accepted it as easily and selflessly as she had not experienced the terrible hand that life had dealt her. She was a true inspiration and Sam thought that one day she would be as special a woman as his mother had been. He pulled her closer as she continued to sob. He thought that the tears she shed so freely might be a good sign that the agony she’d lived with for so long was beginning to pass. As far as Sam was concerned it was overdue. But there was another way to cope with the broken heart she carried inside of her. Telepathy. But Julia would hear nothing of it. Even now, even as the healing process had hopefully began, she preferred to live on her own terms, to let the entire planet pass her by if that were her destiny.
Meanwhile, Dr. Crangler continued to train his army. There were no other alien threats upon the horizon, but the Doctor advised his telepaths that in a universe so vast there must be other intelligences capable of telepathy. Or perhaps something even stronger. It was the human race’s responsibility to remain vigilant against the likelihood of any of these other intelligences setting their sights upon the earth. Weeks passed while Capital City buried their dead and celebrated their victory. It was a somber time and it wasn’t long before the Good Doctor assigned Capital City another task. He insisted that the human race must use their combined ability to reach out into the far recesses of space preemptively and discover what lay beyond their grasp before it discovered them. To colonize other worlds even, when the right time came. It was a logical plan, Sam knew. Ambitious but logical. The problem was that Sam could easily imagine that the hive mind might’ve started out with that kind of thinking. Perhaps Capital City was the modern Tower of Babel. Only, the humans here were trying to make a name for themselves amongst all the galaxy, not just the planet. God had come down and destroyed the Tower of Babel. Was an alien intelligence planning to do the same to this tower? One foreign civilization had already made the attempt. Would the next one succeed?
Dr. Crangler’ answer was simple; “Only one way to find out…”