I now had the task also of telling Alenna about them and what had happened. Holding Alenna’s hand as I explained about the punishment inflicted upon them, unusual for an Alkarren she sat there in silence with her other hand over her mouth as she tried comprehend the seriousness of the situation. She then said to me, ‘‘Can they know the consequences of cutting the hair short on an Alkarren?’’
I replied, ‘‘Leave it to me I will explain it to the president. He is due to arrive later in London. I will speak to him then on the matter. We cannot blame him personally but I can make him aware of the fact that this could be conceived a diplomatic incident, or perceived as inflicting torture on them.’’
Alenna was now giving everyone their orders on what they should be doing awaiting our guests’ arrival. My only job was to go to the bridge and watch out for the limo and inform her when it came into sight. From that moment on I would be chaperoned as they had daughters that would be considered eligible for marriage, though I have little doubt that they would not be considering me as a possible husband. After I had spoken to the president I was to go to the entertainment room and wait there with the children and other family members. Alenna, Jenna and Minty would greet them as they arrived at our ship, taking them first to the galley before finally bringing them to the entertainment room to meet us. So there was I looking out the window occasionally waving at the ever present crowds when one of my younger daughters came onto the bridge. This was Misty. She was almost ten and one of the four daughters of Minty. She tended to be quiet and got on with things that she is asked to do. She sat in the pilot’s chair asking if she could learn to fly. She was a tall girl for her age. I looked; she could indeed reach the foot controls with room to spare and having passed my minimum requirement I said that if that is what she wanted, then she could do so. Her face lit up. As I had little to do I went over some basic tuition with her, which she lapped up. It seemed almost all of my daughters wanted to learn to be pilots. Only Jett so far had gone for navigation. I just wondered if they would make the most of becoming pilots or would they throw it all away by marrying out of the cargo transport business. Only time would tell. They also say time flies when you’re busy. We had been there almost an hour and a half when I had a phone call from the president to say he was five minutes away. Saying to Misty, ‘‘Quick go and tell Alenna they will be here any moment,’’ I left the bridge and went and waited just inside the ship where I was soon joined by Alenna, Jenna, Minty and Lumi.
At once Lumi and I separated from them, as I had to see the president, leaving the others as the welcoming committee. Several limos arrived; they were allowed to get close to our ship. Out of the first stepped the Alkarrens, their heads hidden under blankets. They were quickly ushered inside. I on the other hand went up to the car with the president inside. I was then shown in and Lumi waited outside to endure chants and shouts from the crowd, most in support of us mind you. Now I had the ordeal of the hair problem to deal with. I tried to explain the best I could about Alkarrens and their hair saying they did not see hair as Earth girls do. To Alkarrens hair is part of their well-being, their life, their essence and to cut an Alkarrens hair is a dishonour, as they spend hours treating it like a ritual making sure their hair is just right. No other Alkarren would dream of cutting another’s hair, even the children’s. If it gets too long it is so very carefully measured before being trimmed and always to the same length. Even senior citizens have the same length hair, only they do not usually have ponytails any longer. Finally telling him that should an Alkarren somehow dishonour her house she may think it’s necessary to cut her hair to show she is in repentance for her dishonour, this is the only time they would ever consider doing so.
The president offered his sincere apology of what had happened and then asked if there was anything he could do to help the situation. I thought for a second and said, ‘‘Perhaps you can, could you get six long haired wigs in dark chocolate but they must be the very best synthetic as they would certainly not accept real human hair, then send them to me.’’
He obliged saying, ‘‘That is the least I could do under the circumstance and they would be with you within the hour.’’
As I took my leave I said, ‘‘Good luck on the first round of voting tonight.’’ Also as I was leaving he delegated someone to get the wigs.
Lumi and I returned to the ship and as instructed we went to the entertainment room. I sat down in one corner within one of two groups, surrounded by a number of children which included Perri and Rachael. As Lumi had walked in with me she also sat within our group; the other group consisted of Luka, Lara, Yarkeli and the older children. We waited for what seemed an eternity but was probably only few minutes in reality. The youngest were a little fidgety so I picked up a book to read to them. But as I did Alenna entered along with Minty, Jenna and the rescued Alkarren women, their heads covered with towels. Alenna then invited them to sit down before starting to introduce everybody. First she announced our guests as the house of Tartan, then their names, Katrina their deputy wife, Alexa and Marci, the other mothers, and finally their daughters, Aggie, Liza and River, who incidentally were around my age.
Now Alenna started on our family, first the other wives but as she was about to start on the children one of their daughters spotted the children’s hands were not webbed. Alarmingly she told her family! She said it in English unaware that we could also speak the language. She had done this so as not to appear rude to us. Alenna now answered in English, which threw them back somewhat, and they were now puzzled as Alenna and the other wives had webbed hands but the children did not. Alenna now explained to them saying, ‘‘You may not like what I am about to say due to your past circumstance but here goes, we are married to a human male.’’ You should have seen their faces, total disbelief. Alenna now introduced me and I spoke to them in Alkarren, which was also another shock to them as they had deliberately not used their own language in front of humans from the time they were captured. This way those who were holding them captive would find it impossible to access their pid’s, which had been confiscated from them, instead using the made up language Zeln.
Alenna still had to finish introducing everyone. After the children came Yarkeli and Pooky before finally Rachael. She looked so Alkarren if it was not for her non-webbed hands along with her eyes not being so blue. Of course she did not have a tail but they would not have known that, but to clarify matters she was introduced as my human sister. I kept quiet and let the others do the talking. It was now fifty-five minutes since they had arrived and I was thinking that the wigs were not going to arrive within the hour. When I had a call that a delivery was waiting for me out side, I quietly left the room, taking Lumi and Rachael with me. There was one of the president’s aides ready to greet us with six boxes. The three of us took them inside, first to the galley where I started to open one box, with Lumi and Rachael hovering over me. As I opened it Rachael said, ‘‘It’s a wig.’’ The two girls now knew what I had done to help our six Alkarren guests.
I said to Lumi, ‘‘They are longer than needed but the colour is about right. Perhaps six of my lovely wives that's one to each of our guests, would be willing to offer their assistance to help style them appropriately.’’ At once Lumi jumped at the chance and wanted to be one of those to help. I guessed that all the wives would also want to help, but one would have to be with me but which one? I did not ask Rachael to help as it was better that it was done by Alkarrens under the circumstance.
We carried them into the entertainment room. Lumi then gave each of our guests a box at the same time telling them what was in the box, also pointing out that they would look great after they had been fashioned. Alenna said, "See my human husband is always willing to help out.'' She must have been talking about me in my absence. Now Alenna had to choose which wife would be left to chaperone me, as Lumi’s excitement at the prospect of assisting them had shown, so
did all the others. Alenna took the sacrifice and said she would chaperone me, and by her face I could see she was disappointed. Rachael, Yarkeli and the children would also leave with us as they were ashamed enough without having them watching to. The rest of the family now went to the cargo deck for games the four adults carrying the youngest four. We would organise a more energetic game for the older children and for the youngest something more gentle one such as knocking down plastic skittles. On the way Alenna praised me for what I had done and said that it was so thoughtful of me getting wigs for our guests. After a short time I could see that Alenna’s thoughts were elsewhere and so I asked her if she wanted to go and help out. However, she didn’t want to leave me. I asked why not, saying that I had Rachael, Yarkeli and the children to look after me here, and if I was to try and leave, Yarkeli could give me a Lusianian head lock. Yarkeli hearing this enthusiastically said she would be all too willing to oblige, imitating with her arm the head lock. I gulped and replied that I would not give her cause to perform such an act on me. Alenna was still not sure, so I persisted explaining that she would be with the six women so it’s safe, saying, ‘‘Alenna go and help, before you turn into a miserable sour puss.’’ This did the trick and she left.
I had just over a week to show humans in a better light, quite a tall task but I would be giving it my very best shot. I hoped they would be finished with the hair before the first results were announced of the election for the final three in just over two hours’ time. To top that we were also close to last meal of the day and it would not be long before the children started to complain that they were hungry. When that time came we would need to go to the galley, and at that point I would need to call back Alenna, but for the time being we could enjoy some fun with the children.
The children lasted longer than expected, but as predicted we now needed to go to galley. So I called up Alenna and asked if she could spare a few minutes, explaining that the children needed to eat. She replied of course and swiftly returned and escorted us to the galley before leaving again, saying as she left they would not be very long now and to have food ready for everyone. I had asked the older children to do a task for me while Yarkeli, Rachael and I prepared the food. This task involved finding out anything about the house of Tartan that may have been recorded such as a news clip or anything on their pid’s. After a while I asked if anyone had found anything. I looked around and received shakes of heads with exception of Jessica who replied that she may have something. She reported to me that there was reference to a student by the name of Bella of the house of Tartan receiving a final pass having qualified in agricultural biological engineering at a Alkarren University not that long ago. An award ceremony was held for all students who had qualified during that period. Jessica now referenced the university and found the live video of the award ceremony, along with Bella being issued with certificate of achievement. I applauded Jessica and asked her to keep it ready and when I gave her the word to project it.
The food was ready; we now had to wait for the wives and our guests to arrive before eating. They were not long, which was a good thing as the children were by now ready to eat whatever was put before them. In walked our guests with my wives; they had been completely transformed. If I did not know, I would not have guessed that their hair was not real. They looked as Alkarren females should which I hoped made them feel more confident now. For our guests this was the first Alkarren meal they had consumed in almost fifteen years and did they enjoy it. There were clean plates all around. Up to now I had kept quiet and let Alenna and the others do the talking so as not to draw to much attention to myself, not easy as they were continually glancing or looking at me. I did manage a half-smile out of one of the daughters; well it did look like a smile I could have been mistaken.
Time to put my plan “not all humans are bad” into operation. I asked, ‘‘Who is Bella from your house?’’
At once two spoke up at the same time, ‘‘My sister,’’ from River.
‘‘My daughter,’’ from Katrina.
I replied, ‘’Well I have some good news for you, my daughter Jessica has found some recent award ceremony of her. Would you like to see it?’’
‘‘Oh yes please,’’ they excitedly proclaimed. Some now stated to get tears in their eyes. I indicated Jessica to project it. Now the emotion welled up in all of them and tears flowed. The mothers immediately noticed others of their house in the background and Jessica replayed it a number of times. They could not recognise two girls who looked below sixteen. There were a few guesses as to who their mothers may be, but to find out for sure they would have to wait until they returned to Alkarr. As for Bella, they observed that she was no longer a little girl. I could see that they were upset at missing her childhood.
It was time again for me to keep quiet, at least for now and let them come to terms with what they had viewed. I wanted to know the result to the election. It would have been announced by now but with all that was going on I missed it, so I would have to play catch up and watch the news. Besides, it would be best if I left so all the women could talk about things; they would be more likely to open up if I was not there.
I left the galley with Lumi Lara and Rachael to return to the entertainment room and to find out the election results. The results were a surprise, as all the candidates from the larger countries had been eliminated in the first round. It left a male ambassador with a large family from the Middle East with sons and daughters, a family from Latin America with sons only that was another male ambassador incidentally and finally a female ambassador from Scandinavia with one daughter only. Well, it was clear which ambassador we would be rooting for, but the final choice was not down to me unfortunately. There would be a final election to decide. It had also been agreed that the finalist must receive more than forty percent of the vote to be selected. It was reported on the news that a number of Alkarrens had been freed having been imprisoned without trial by a commander of an American military base and that a three-star general and his staff were now under arrest, and facing very serious charges. No other information was forthcoming. I suspected somebody had leaked this information to the press.
Rachael said to me that she had been in contact with our aunt, uncle and Mandy and they were arriving to visit us in the morning. They had hoped to see us once more before we left Earth again. As expected Lumi and Lara wanted to go back and see our guests as they felt they were missing out. I had to give in and return with them. Rachael secretly also wanted to be there if only to listen, only this time when I entered the room they did not frown at me; in fact, to my astonishment, I had smiles from two of them. The others had more neutral expressions. I wondered what had been said in my absence to do that. I had a choice to ask Alenna later or keep it to myself and perhaps I would never know, so I decided to dwell on it for the moment. Just because I was now in the room it did not stop them talking, Alenna brought up the saga of the evacuation of Alto and how we had participated ending up with Lara as my seventh wife. Alenna was doing a better job than me at trying to show at least that there were some good humans. She even remarked that she definitely preferred a human husband over an Alkarren, pointing out that Alkarren men could be somewhat lazy. I was taken aback by Katrina; she had in fact agreed with Alenna that Alkarren men tend to do very little, but still said she preferred her Alkarren husband, which is understandable as she is married to one and saying anything different would be considered as a dishonour.
It had been an eventful day and it was now time for bed. Alenna escorted our guests to their assigned cabin before making sure all our daughters were tucked in for the night. Finally, we could retire and as we lay in bed I said that I was now teaching Misty how to pilot the ship. Alenna and Minty were both put out because I had failed to run this past them, however, finally acknowledged that I had done the right thing. I confirmed also that she was my daughter and therefore I had a vested intere
st in her future. This was my awkward human side coming out just enough without rebelling far from the status quo of the Alkarren way and culture.
Chapter 11
Goodbye Earth Again
It was the next morning, the day of the final vote and a visit from my relatives, which Rachael was arranging with Alenna. It had been raining on and off all night and only the truly dedicated fans as we like to call the crowds had remained. The outlook for the rest of the day was that it would be a fine day, so I would expect the crowd to increase somewhat later. Our guests were up and had joined us for breakfast. We informed them that we were going to have some human visitors later and if they wished they could spend the day in the entertainment room or alternatively they could join the children and the others on the cargo deck where we hoped to open the outer door to let the sun in but keep the mesh door closed. This had two purposes: to keep us safe from any outsider, while it would stop the younger children from wandering outside unaccompanied.
Chronicles of Jake 1: My Return to Planet Earth Page 16