by Arthur Butt
Bill and Roy volunteered to sail downstream and tell our people it was safe to return.
A light mist started falling and it grew dark. We decided to leave and return to the gate when Mr. Whitehorse and his family arrived. Captain Smith pulled up next in his Humvee, right behind the Amerijuns, with the rest of his men in a long column.
I made introductions all around. Captain Smith said, "I'm taking my men and heading upriver to make sure none of Morgan's men escape." He slapped me on my back, almost knocking me over. "It seems you and your machine have everything under control here."
"Uh, yeah, I guess so." Mr. Whitehorse, Pop, and Mr. Brennan cheered Kat and me. "We'll try our best."
Captain Smith leaped into his Humvee and shouted to us, "This is one defeat Morgan won't forget. His power has been broken in this sector for the time being, I'm sure of it." He drove off with his men trailing him.
Mr. Whitehorse said to Kat and me, "It's raining and becoming late, you kids must be dog-tired. You're welcome to spend the night with us," he gestured to the motorhome, and then to the school. "It doesn't appear there's anything livable in the town for warriors – always glad to have more company."
Annie giggled and took a few steps toward me, nodding her head.
Kat said quickly, "We don't want to put you out, Mr. Whitehorse. I think we'll sleep in Bev tonight. Mr. Greene, Dad? Want to have a victory celebration?"
Mr. Brennan released a tired groan and scrubbed at his face. "We would probably be more comfortable in the motorhome with the Whitehorses," he replied as he surveyed Bev's burnt exterior, "but if you want us to stay in your machine, we can. It won't be much of a party, though," he let out a sigh, "I'm dead-tired." He ruffled her hair. "I'm surprised both of you aren't out on your feet."
"Yes, it is getting late," Pop agreed. "Why don't you two go ahead and settle down. I need to speak with Mr. Whitehorse for a minute. We will be right along in a minute."
I wanted to stay and talk too, but Mr. Brennan was correct, I could barely keep my eyes open and yawns kept escaping my mouth. Kat tugged on my sleeve, dragging me away from Annie and toward Bev. "Let's go, Hunter. I want to find spare blankets and pillows."
"Oh, all right," I grumped. "Your dad has a point anyhow. No fun tonight – I can hardly stand up."
"Nonsense," she beamed as we crawled into Bev's cargo hold. She called out, "Hey, Bev, we're having another slumber party!" She pounded on the wall, "You ready to get down and dirty, you naughty little girl scout?"
When Bev made no reply, I said, "Bev? Are you still mad at us? Everything is all finished, honey, no more fighting, I promise. Please talk to us."
I heard a sound, a faint whisper.
"Help."
"Bev?"
"Bev!"
She never spoke again.
Chapter Seventeen
We rebuilt Paradise Cove. With the addition of all the refugees from the other towns, and Mr. Whitehorse's people, the work went fast. It was also more crowded than ever before.
Captain Smith and his men stuck around for a while scouting. They rounded up dozens of Morgan's soldiers, deserters who used the opportunity of the defeat to escape. A few of the single men enlisted with the rebels, most thought they still had families alive somewhere and left to find them.
After his last scouting mission, Captain Smith reported he could find no trace of Morgan's army in the area, also work on the road ceased; Mr. King's work crews had vanished along with the prison labor.
"Might be pulling back to regroup," Captain Smith stated to Pop and me, before he left, "Maybe he lost too many men and feels he can't hold the territory he has. I'm taking my people and heading up north to see what's doing, joining together with another company fighting a would-be war lord attempting to set up a kingdom."
He said to me, "Any time you want to enlist with us, you're more than welcome. We need men such as you with spunk."
"Gee, thanks," I replied, surprised at his offer, "but I have to stick around, there's still high school to finish."
"Well, if you change your mind." He threw us a salute and drove off.
We heard later from the skel rumor mill a lot of fighting occurred up north afterward. I guess free men just have to fight for freedom.
The Amerijuns had a small group with their party who called themselves the Plain People. They might have been plain, but they were workhorses when it came to building, and brought their own tools. Even kids younger than me knew how to use a hammer and saw. Before we'd completely cleaned up the evidence of the battle, they were banging away and erected houses for everyone.
The town's buildings took longer. We needed to clear the streets again, and material located for construction, before we rebuilt the business district and high school.
For a lot of this work we used Bev as a plow and tractor. She worked fine in manual, and Kat and I hauled concrete and garbage from early morning until late at night. We would pack a lunch and eat while working, sometimes getting so tired by nightfall we'd sleep in Bev rather than go home. You could say she, Kat and I rebuilt Paradise Cove single handedly. Well, we did have help, but we did a major portion.
When we put Bev in automatic, however, and gave a command, she stood, unmoving. No amount of coaxing or pleading would make her move or say a word.
After we'd finished in the town, we drove Bev out to Pop's new farmhouse and repaired the rips and cracks in her hull. We cleaned off all the burnt stuff and repainted Bev with her favorite colors, pink and purple.
Pop and Mr. Brennan examine the controls and couldn't figure out what was the matter, in fact, they didn't understand how she worked in the first place. She contained no engine, power pack, or circuits. They concluded Doctor Krumboton developed some kind of metal acting as a giant, integrated computer chip, and did everything in one shot. The thin coating they discovered shreds of on the outside of the hull, which made her shiny, they theorized generated a personality.
"I can only guess, of course," Pop explained, "But she sustained so much damage during the battle some of her higher functions were lost. If the covering she wore made her talk it would certainly have been the case, the continuing blasts she took burnt it all off. Your Doctor Krumboton might even have designed her in such a way."
It didn't make sense and I said so.
Pop sat on the grass in front of Bev and patted the ground next to him for me to sit. I eased myself down and he pointed to Bev's exterior. "Think of it this way, son. You see how chewed up she is? Bev's body is the same as yours. You can lose your sight, an arm," he pointed at my leg, "the ability to walk and still function, right?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Well, Bev was built the same way. She lost her personality, she cannot talk, or act on her own, but she works fine as long as someone operates her. Understand?"
I did, but I didn't enjoy it.
In Mr. Whitehorse's party, he had other engineers who examined her, even going as far as cutting open one of the bot rats we still carried, and examining the insides. After splitting the casing using a laser beam, they discovered an empty shell. They suggested a whole mess of theories and different conclusions, which contradicted each other, but I guess the old nursery rhyme was true, "All the king's horses, and all the king's men, couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again."
We tried getting back down to the lab to ask Doctor Krumboton what was wrong with her, but found it impossible. You see, Doc locked his placed down tight, blast shields and everything, and Bev was the one with the codes to unlock the doors, only she wasn't talking.
We left Bev parked at the farmhouse and Kat and I made her our official clubhouse, planted black-eyed Susan's around her and everything. We even celebrated our sixteenth birthday in her. Kat baked a cake, put candles on top, getting chocolate frosting all over her fingers, and we sang happy birthday to each other. I made a party hat for Bev, and we placed a piece of cake on a plate by her front, but it wasn't the same without the dumb remarks.
After we cleaned up Parad
ise Cove, and the steam, electrical, and water restored again, one of the first things to reopen was the high school. I guess the adults wanted a place to stash us kids during the day so we wouldn't get into trouble. Mr. Whitehorse, Pop, and Mr. Brennan even talked about starting uni courses, at least in the major subjects, for the older kids. Higher education didn't worry me too much, I still had to survive the eleventh level.
Kat and I were walking down the new hallway – I was burdened down with a double load of books. Kat made me carry them for her.
Hank and Sonja strolled the other way. They were back to full speed, thinking they ruled the school again, which made Kat and I laugh. We started a football team this year, but every other town within fifty miles had disappeared, the people dispersed by Morgan's army, or lived in Paradise Cove as refugees, so the team was more symbolic than anything else – also the cheerleaders.
"Hey, it's the geek," Hank quipped as he and Sonja blocked our path, "the hero of the town!"
"And the geekess," Sonja added with a scratching motion of her nails. "The Kat's meow."
Kat tried to ignore them and walk around. I stopped and said, "We gonna have a winning football season this year, Hank? Should be easy, you have no one to lose to. No competition."
Kat giggled and said, "Maybe you can play the cheerleaders," she gave Sonja a laugh, which showed all her teeth. "If I remember right, they enjoy rolling around in the mud, black roots and all."
Sonja sputtered incoherently. Hank shot back, "Sure, maybe we'll use the old wreck you keep in your yard. We'll need the piece of junk for the barn fire celebration."
"You leave Bev out of this," I said. "She's done more for this town than you ever will."
Hank snorted and said, "Oh, yeah? What's the great Bev doing now? I heard you're growing flowers in it, about all it's good for, right? Find your loony doctor and you can play ring around the rosy."
When I didn't answer, he laughed. "Well, see you later losers, got to go." He slapped the top of the books I carried, knocking them to the floor, as Sonja and he cut around us.
I bent over to pick them up, swinging my bum leg out so I could get to one knee. Hank slammed into my foot, tripped, and pulled Sonja down with him in a heap of arms, legs, and curses.
I finished collecting our books, and Kat and I walked to class. My leg didn't hurt at all where it had been kicked.
I think Bev would’a been proud.
About the Author
Arthur Butt is a graduate of Florida State University, former soldier, former police officer, former plant manager, now trying to live the good life in hot and humid Florida.
Also from Astraea Press
Prologue: Abra
Here on Earth, they called us Descenders because of the way the lights from our spaceships lit up the night when we descended on the planet at the brink of its extinction. We were their saviors, coming to rescue them from the bleakness their world had become. It was a time on Earth when the sun didn't shine, the oceans were lifeless, and most animals were extinct. A small human population survived by scratching out a meager existence from the remnants of what once was.
"What about the girl?" Astrid asked when I'd been silent too long. I stared at her a moment, noting the sadness in my sister's face. She was pregnant again, this time with her fourth child. Her first three had all died by the time they were three years old.
We left Planet Danu and came to Earth as part of an experiment to breed with the human race. We learned to mask our alien traits in order to blend in with the population. We took human mates. We bore half human children. And in all our years of pretending to be one of them, we became a little human ourselves.
"The girl will be born to human parents after the birth of your fifth son. She will be a hybrid." The look of confusion on Astrid's face was understandable. How could a human child be a hybrid? To us, to Descenders, a hybrid was the product of a Descender-human union.
"My fifth son?" My sister looked distraught. Too many of our children had died, and we hadn't signed up for such losses. We were mating with humans in order to improve their race while sustaining our own. But there was something wrong between the genes of Descenders and humans, and I had buried five of my own children alongside my sister's three. It wasn't supposed to be a hostile takeover, but where is the peace in burying your own children? It was a cost neither of us was willing to bear any longer. We might have given in to despair if not for the promise of the girl with the purple eyes. She would be the solution.
The girl appeared to me in a dream. She floated into my thoughts as if I'd conjured her, an answer to what I'd been so desperately seeking. She would be the one — a new branch on the evolutionary tree.
"She will be the first of her kind," I said aloud, "the first human to exhibit traits rivaling our own. Our children are not going to die anymore, Sister."
Some children inexplicably survived the inter-breeding, but only a select few. Our government, the Reformation Republic, wanted to continue no matter the cost. The general population believed the deaths were attributed to a plague, some microbial illness infecting the planet randomly. The government claimed to have no cure. But I discovered their lie, and then I stole it. I pulled the vial from my pocket. The clear, viscous liquid swirled in a case encrypted with the information we needed to save our children.
"So it's true then, they had the cure all along?" Astrid asked.
It was true. The knowledge of such a betrayal was the end of our allegiance to the Reformation. We spent some time inscribing the cure on all of the jewelry we had in our possession, symbols that would mean nothing to anyone else, but everything to us.
We began to form our plan. The Reformation required all children to join an Energy Crusade by the time they were eighteen. Such Crusades could last a lifetime and others, the more dangerous ones, could be much shorter. The higher the level of danger, the higher the energy payout, and energy was the only accepted currency on Earth. Astrid would become even more valuable to the Reformation. She would train Elite Crusaders, building an army under the very noses of those who had deceived us. With her help, I had faked my own death, leaving behind a husband who had no idea I was carrying our twins — the last children I would bear. As far as my government was concerned, I no longer existed. I would go underground and unite those who resisted the rule of the Descenders, biding my time until the girl came to us.
"How will I find her?" my sister asked, knowing we would soon have to part.
"You'll find her, Astrid. Find her parents. A son will be born to them first, in the season of the leaves, after the birth of the son you are carrying now. The girl will come during the second season of the sun following his birth."
"Is there another piece to this puzzle?" Astrid persisted. She knew, she could tell there was something else.
"She has another half," I admitted, unable to keep anything from my sister. I could see the girl would have a male by her side, her equal.
"Her brother?" Astrid asked.
"No." I shook my head. "Someone she loves and not like a brother. Without him, she will not become the girl we need. They are the future of this planet. Of our planet," I added, for I considered Earth my home. I thought for a moment, trying to see into the future. "He is a hybrid, and not by chance." He'd be bred as a hybrid, I felt certain of it. She would be the first of her kind, and he, one of the first of his to survive.
Together, they would breed the first of a new race. "My sons will be hybrids. One of them will complete her destiny." Astrid was quite sure of herself. She patted her swollen belly.
"My son will be a hybrid too. He will be raised to love this girl." I locked eyes with my sister. I could feel her inside my head, trying to see my visions firsthand.
I touched my forehead to hers and could see real tears in her eyes. It was time for us to part.
I hugged my sister tightly and kissed her tears away.
I wouldn't see her again for sixteen years.
Chapter One: Kaia
&n
bsp; My dream was different this time. I didn't spend it chasing the white haired lady as I did most nights. Instead, a memory from my childhood surfaced, bringing a familiar face into my restless nights.
"Come on, Kaia!" a young Ajax Baal beckoned me. He was as I remembered him, five years old and full of life. I took his little hand in my own and followed him around the cliffs bordering the University. In the dream, I was seventeen just as I was in real life, but Ajax was still a little boy. I followed him down the path leading to the beach. The ocean crashed against the shore in wild spurts, spraying us with seawater.
"Follow me," he insisted, tugging my arm. The cliffs skirting the shore boasted ragged openings of various sizes. He squeezed through a small one, and despite my larger size, I was able to follow him. We were engulfed in darkness. I couldn't see my feet in front of me, but Ajax tightened his grip and we continued on. The darkness gave way to a dim light up ahead. We started to follow it, down passageways and over puddles of water as it moved at a steady pace some meters in front of us. At times we lost sight of it as the caves twisted and turned, but we'd find it again, and keep going. After what seemed like many hours of following the light, we came to a passageway containing a stream of water. It lapped against our shoes while the light danced ahead of us. Ajax started to walk into the water but I tugged his hand.
"Wait, I don't know if I want to go any further," I told him. My voice sounded small, like a little girl's, frightened and unsure.
"It's okay," Ajax soothed me, "I'll protect you." I trusted him and followed him into the water, even though it didn't make sense. He was only five and I was seventeen. I should have been the one to protect him.
The water got deeper and eventually we had to swim. Somehow, we could swim and hold hands at the same time. When the current became strong enough, we turned on our backs and let it carry us, keeping our physical connection all the while.