Tau Ceti

by Laurence Dahners

  As Ell walked out of Vic’s she felt placidly happy. The music had been great and talking to Gordon had been a lot of fun, though it had been hard not saying something that would give away the fact that she also knew him as “Belle.” It had also been difficult resisting his entreaties that she dance on the stage next set. But she had agreed to go out to dinner with him before Velos’ next concert in Raleigh…

  Her AI told her that her car would meet her around the corner because the street in front of Vic’s was busy enough that AI driven cars weren’t allowed to stop there to pick people up. As she turned the corner onto the street where her car was to meet her she heard steps jogging up behind her. Glancing back she recognized one of the men who’d been dancing near her when she’d been on the dance floor with Vic.

  “Ms. Donsaii? Hi, I’m Gary Palot. I’ve admired you for… forever and wondered if I could buy you a cup of coffee?”

  Ell smiled at him, “Thank you. I appreciate the offer, but I’m pretty tired and,” she shrugged, “I don’t even drink coffee.”

  His smiling face twisted fleetingly, then the smile returned. “Dessert?”

  Ell’s eyes narrowed, she hadn’t liked the look that had momentarily appeared on his face, but she smiled anyway and shrugged, “No thanks.” She stepped off the curb to walk around to the other side of her car.

  “Sam said you were a bitch, but I didn’t believe him.”

  Falling into the zone Ell turned to look at “Gary” again. The twisted look was back, occasionally flickering toward a smile, then back to his uglier aspect. Gary reached toward his waistband. Ell stepped toward him, wondering why her life seemed to have so much drama in it. When his hand dipped in and pulled out a pistol she stepped the rest of the way to him and twisted the gun toward him, loosening his fingers and ripping it out of his grasp. “Call 911,” she said to her AI, stepping back and dropping the gun into her purse. Putting her hands up in a fending off posture she said, “Back off Gary, that wasn’t nice.”

  Grabbing his right hand in his left, Gary said, “You little bitch!” Letting go of his hand he stepped forward, reaching out.

  Ell just stepped out of his reach, speaking slowly so he’d understand, “Gary, calm down. You’re in enough trouble. Don’t make it worse.”

  A familiar sounding voice said, “Don’t move, bitch…”

  Ell looked to Gary’s right and saw Bridget’s Sam stepping out of the alley, right elbow locked around Emma’s neck. Some kind of splint was still on his right hand. The way Emma was leaning back there was no doubt in Ell’s mind that his left hand had the barrel of a gun pushed into her kidney.

  A spike of fear shot through Ell as she saw the panic in Emma’s wide eyes. She raised her hands, empty palms out, “OK, what do you want?”

  “We’re all going to get into your car there, Donsaii. Then we’ll go for a little ride out to your house.” Sam nodded at her car. “Then we’re going to have a little talk with my Bridget. You’re gonna undo whatever brainwashing you two have done on her so’s she can come home.”

  Ell’s eyes widened, it sounded like Sam was completely out of touch with reality. He’d built an imaginary mental world in which Bridget lived with Ell because she’d been programmed to do so rather than because of her fear of Sam. Speaking calmly Ell said, “OK” and turned to get in the car. As she opened the door she quietly said, “Allan, blitz,” which was the prearranged signal to her AI to contact her security team and the police and send a constant audio-video stream to them. She pondered the common advice that you should never go anywhere with a kidnapper. You didn’t want them to take you to an isolated area. However, it sounded like Sam planned to take her to her own farm house which would allow more of her security team to gather in a location they were familiar with.

  Gary got in front with Ell, while Sam and Emma got in the back. When the doors closed Ell told the car’s AI, “Take us to my house.” She took a couple of deep breaths and felt herself drop out of her zone.

  As the car started rolling Gary reached out and pulled off Ell’s AI headband, “Sorry it has to be this way,” he said. He popped the PGR chip out of her headband but to her relief didn’t look for the second hidden chip. When she looked at him wonderingly he shrugged and said, “If you’d just gone for coffee…”

  Mentally Ell rolled her eyes, but physically she just stared at him, trying not to look as disgusted as she felt.

  From the back seat Sam said, “I’ll bet you girls thought you’d beaten me for good.” He giggled, almost hysterically, “You probably thought that with my hand trashed I wouldn’t be able to do anything to get Bridget back out of your clutches.”

  Ell turned to look at Sam, He wasn’t wearing an AI. Of course, if he did hook himself into the net, someone would be by to pick him up pretty quick. But it was pretty hard to get along in the modern world without some kind of AI, at least to pay for things. “How’d you get out of prison?”

  Another frenetic giggle, “Psych eval. They sent me to the state hospital to see if I was crazy. It ain’t too hard to escape from that place if you ain’t crazy. Gary here was just bein’ released when I got out. I got a ride with him and his family.”

  Ell realized that Gary’s AI must be serving for both of them. She said, “Sam, do you really think that Bridget loves you and wants you back?”

  “Absolutely!” he said with a brittle edge.

  “Will you ask her if that’s the case?”

  “No! I know you done something to her. She didn’t even come visit me in the hospital!”

  “Sam…” Ell started to ask wearily.

  “Shut up!”

  Emma yelped as Sam jabbed the gun into her side. “Say another word and I’ll put a hole in your little friend here.”

  They’d traveled a few blocks in silence when Gary leaned toward Ell and said, “Kiss me?”

  Astonished, Ell leaned away, looked at him and gave him one sharp head shake, thinking something was deeply wrong with him. It was as if he had no concept what other people were feeling. He and Sam were quite the pair. The remainder of the ride to Ell’s house passed in silence, though Ell continued thinking furiously.

  When they drove up to the house the lights were out suggesting that her security team wanted darkness where their IR gear would give them an advantage. Sam insisted that he get out first and that Emma follow him out the right rear door. Then he walked her around to the driver’s side and, with the gun firmly in Emma’s side, told Ell to get out. Gary got out at the same time. Ell saw a lone tear running down Emma’s cheek.

  Sam gestured to the house with his chin, “Take us in and we’ll get Bridget.”

  Ell wondered what Steve and her security team were doing. She hoped they’d gotten Bridget out of the house and she worried that they might do something that frightened Sam while he was holding a gun to Emma’s back. They walked up the steps to the porch and Ell told the door to unlock. She had to give it a passcode since she wasn’t wearing her AI. She turned to Sam, “Sam, are you sure you don’t want give yourself up. It’s only going to get worse for you, you know?”

  “Shut up and open the door.”

  Ell opened the door and pushed it open, gesturing for Sam to enter first.

  “No! What do you think I am, some kind of idiot? You go first.”

  Ell stepped into the room and then to the left just inside the door.

  “Move into the middle of the room. You aren’t pulling any of your tricks on me again.”

  Ell stepped into the middle of the room. Knowing that the security team could see her on the cameras, she shook her head, hoping that they would understand that she didn’t want them to come in guns blazing. She had a feeling that anything that frightened Sam would result in Emma getting hurt. She had the same feeling about any kind of hostage negotiation.

  Sam pushed Emma across the threshold. “Bridg’?” he called out. “I’ve come for you, honey. Don’t worry about these people sweetie. I’ll protect you from them.”

&
nbsp; Ell sighed. Sam seemed so far out of touch with reality, she wondered if anything could get through to him. If not, it seemed unlikely that this situation could end without Sam getting hurt, and possibly hurting Emma or Ell.

  “Bridget?” Sam said, louder this time. He motioned at Ell with his chin, “Where are you keeping her?”

  “I’m not keeping her. She lives in a bedroom on the second floor.”

  “Let’s go.”

  They made their way up the open stairway, a task made difficult by Sam’s insistence on keeping his right elbow locked around Emma’s neck as they ascended with him on the stair below her. The stairs gave out onto an open walkway that went around to the rooms on the second floor. Ell stepped left and waved a hand to the right, the direction of Bridget’s room. Sam said, “No, you lead the way.”

  Ell led as directed. Once they arrived in Bridget’s room they found the bed unmade with a t-shirt tossed on it.

  Gary said. “Looks like she left.”

  Sam turned furiously, “‘Looks like someone took her, you mean.”

  Gary shrugged.

  Sam turned to Ell, “Where do you have her?”

  Ell shrugged, “She’s a free person, comes and goes as she wishes.”

  Fiercely, “Where do you have her?” Emma yelped and bowed backward as Sam forced the gun into her back.

  Bridget’s voice came from out in the hall, “Sam?”

  Sam smile beatifically and looked toward the hall, “Bridget?” He started dragging Emma that direction, keeping her between Ell and himself. “Bridget?!”

  Ell held her breath, but as he was about to go through the door he suddenly stopped, turned to Ell and said, “You first.”

  Careful not to slump her shoulders and confirm to him just how badly she wanted to be behind him, Ell instead shrugged and stepped out onto the walkway. Once there, they heard Bridget’s voice coming from the house AI’s speakers, “Sam, I’m not in the house. I don’t want to go anywhere with you…”

  “Bridget…” Sam said plaintively. “No! This isn’t the real you! They’ve brainwashed you honey. Remember how much we loved each other?”

  “I loved you once, Sam… But then you got jealous and mean… And controlling.”

  “No! Bridget, I’m different now. Besides, they’ve done something to your mind. Come talk to me in person… I, I can reprogram what they’ve done to you, honey, I promise. We’ll be back just like we used to be.”

  Bridget sobbed faintly, then said, “Sam, I… I hated the way ‘we used to be.’”

  “We’ll fix it Bridg’. Don’t give up on us. We can get back the way we used to be.”

  “I don’t want be to back that way Sam! Listen to me!”

  “I mean before, before it all went bad, before that… night. I just loved you too much is all…” he trailed off plaintively. Ell could see tears running down his cheeks.

  “Sam,” Bridget said, “let Emma go, she’s done you no harm.”

  Angrily, “She, she messed us up!”

  “Sam, she didn’t. We were already messed up. All she did was point it out to me, just how bad our relationship was… Sam… you were a bully.” Her voice cracked on this last.

  Gary had moved up on the right side of Sam and Emma. He said, “I don’t think she likes you anymore, Sam.”

  Convulsively Sam pulled the gun out of Emma’s side and reached around her stomach to fire a shot at Gary. “SHUT UP!”

  Gary danced away unhurt, “Geez man!”

  “Sorry.” Sam looked up at the overhead speakers that Bridget’s voice had been coming from. “Bridg’?”

  Ell had stepped closer when the gun was out of Emma’s side, but it was digging in again. Bridget’s voice sadly said, “Sam, let them go.”

  “No! They’re gonna take me to you, then you’ll see, it’ll all be better.” He looked at Ell, “Back off! And take us to Bridget.”

  Ell shrugged, “Don’t know where she is.” Her eyes narrowed. When Sam brought the gun back from firing at Gary he’d dug it into Emma’s side in front of her arm, instead of behind like he’d had it before. She looked up into Emma’s eyes and stared hard at her. When she felt Emma looking back, she dropped into the zone and looked hard down at the gun—would Emma understand what she wanted? Emma looked down at the gun herself, then up at Ell, seeming to take forever to Ell, deep in her zone.

  Emma nodded minutely.

  Sam said, “Take us…”

  Seeing the muscles on the front of Emma’s arm contracting Ell began stepping forward, pulse throbbing slowly in her ears.

  Emma’s arm began moving and Ell saw the skin on the front of Emma’s elbow flatten against the gun.

  Ell began reaching out, seeing Sam’s fingers tightening as the gun moved from the push of Emma’s arm.

  The gun slid forward on Emma’s side.

  Ell saw the trigger depressing as she reached out.

  The trigger moved farther.

  Ell’s fingers curled around the barrel.

  The gun bucked as Ell pulled outward.

  In horror, Ell saw a hole in Emma’s shirt.

  Emma’s stomach rippled…

  Ell twisted upward, forcing the barrel away from Emma, but over her own ducking head.

  Ell dropped to her knees under the gun as she kept twisting it back out of Sam’s hand.

  The gun wouldn’t come free because Sam’s finger was caught in the trigger guard. She backed off a little on the twist, making sure the barrel wasn’t pointing at anyone, grasping his wrist with her right hand and pulling the gun free.

  She tossed the gun to the floor behind her.

  Sam began dragging Emma toward the railing as if he were going to throw her over.

  Ell raised back off her knees, bringing her right hand up flat to smash the flat of her palm into the middle of Sam’s face, smacking into his nose and eyes.

  Too hard! Ell thought regretfully as she felt the crunching sensation of Sam’s nose and right cheekbone collapsing under her hand. His head flew back, then his hands flew back to catch himself as he fell backward.

  Ell glanced at Gary who, wide eyed, had braced himself, as if at attention. Back and hands against the wall.

  Her eyes turned back to Emma’s stomach, her hand lifting Emma’s t-shirt and seeing two holes indicating the bullet went through and through. “Call 911!” she shouted.

  ***

  Ell sat in the ER with Emma, holding her hand while a cute young intern nervously sutured the bullet wounds. Scans had shown that the bullet had grazed her abdominal muscle but hadn’t entered the abdomen itself. She would be sore but not permanently injured. They heard Roger’s voice outside, “Emma?”

  “Hey Roger, Come in, if you can stand watching me getting sutures.” The curtain moved back and Roger came in, “Hey, Em’, what are you doin’ getting’ yourself shot?!” He noticed Ell, “Hey, Ell.”

  With delight, but also some sadness at the depth of concern in Roger’s voice, Ell said, “Hey Roger, I told you you should go to the Velos concert.”

  Roger sat down and took Emma’s other hand, looking into her eyes he said, “I wish I had. I heard that it was Bridget’s crazy ex?

  “Yeah, he escaped the psych eval unit. Hopefully they’ll put him in higher security this time.”

  Ell said, “Rog’?”

  He turned to her, “Yeah?”

  “Can you take Emma home? I’ve got to go deal with the police some more.”

  “Sure!”

  Ell stood and squeezed Emma’s hand, winking with the eye Roger couldn’t see and putting on a brave smile. She turned to Roger, “Take care of her.”

  After she stepped outside the curtain, Ell wiped the corner of her eye. Buck up! she told herself, They deserve each other and you should not be sad that your two good friends are getting together. As she walked out into the cool evening she snorted, jealous over a guy I don’t even love. What an idiot!

  Chapter Six

  Though it was Saturday, the team had been s
o excited about their alien observations that they had agreed to meet at nine to talk about what was going on with Goldy and Silver. Wheat was so excited he’d arrived early to be sure he found his way to the right place, especially since he’d never been to D5R. Donsaii looked up when he arrived. “Sorry about being a little late taking over the observations last night.”

  “Hey, no problem. Congratulations on your award Thursday night!”

  “Thank you.”

  “Actually, I was so excited I hadn’t even noticed the time until you called last night. That’s even though the Teecees had gone to sleep and nothing was happening. I was using one of the screens to go back through the trek I’d already watched, trying to categorize all the plants and animals.”

  “Well after you signed off, I didn’t have much to do because the Teecees were sleeping, so I went through the parts you’d highlighted. I think you’re right.”

  “Right about what?” Norris asked as he came in the door.

  “Dr. Norris. Hi. Let me introduce Dr. Wheat.” She turned to Wheat, “I told everyone on the team about you so they all already know who you are. Dr. Norris here is from the Astronomy Department at UNC and is an expert in solar systems. He’s been great and really helped us when we were building the rockets we sent to TC3 so we wouldn’t contaminate their world with our microbes and vice versa.”

  While Ell introduced Norris, the rest of the team came in. Emma was with them! Roger accompanied her and she moved quite gingerly.

  Ell’s eyes widened when she saw her, “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be resting?”

  “No, I’m not even taking much pain medicine, just some Aleve. It doesn’t hurt much and I’m not in any danger. And I wasn’t gonna miss hearing what’s going on with Goldy and Silver!”

  Roger sighed exasperatedly.

  Manuel turned to Emma and asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing! Don’t want to talk about it.” She turned to Harald and smiled, “You must be Dr. Wheat?”