And What of Earth?

by Stuart Collings

  When the tending was done, she tried to ease his emotional distress by charging him only six dollars. “Remember Tony, you can’t slide your way out of this one. Do something spectacularly wonderful for her, confess your guilt, show that you’ve learned your lesson, then plead for mercy. You might end up getting off with a lecture then a hug. Now, scoot, before I call her at her sister’s.”

  “Miz Hodges? Who do I go talk to if I saw something?”

  Jennifer was baffled by the question. “What sort of something?”

  “I dunno. Just before I hopped back onto my board, I looked across to the other side of the ravine. I thought I saw some men going down the ravine wall on the other side of the creek. Near where the creek widens and shallows out.”

  “I’ll take care of it, dude. The general running this operation eats lunch with me almost every day. I’ll let him know. Now, take my advice — do something nice for your mom and then plead stupidity. It wasn’t all that long ago that I was your age. ‘k?”.

  “Yes Ma’am”, he said in a dejected tone. He then peeled off six ones and limped out the door.

  “Was I that reckless when I was that age?” she asked aloud in the empty clinic.

  That day’s lunch, courtesy of the US Army, was fish in batter. Jennifer was surprised to see it, since she knew that Mrs. Summers rarely ventured away from ground beef or chicken breasts. The taste, especially that of the malt vinegar that came with the meal, brought back memories of Jennifer’s Great Camping Adventure, when her family camped their way across a half-dozen states and into the province of Ontario. All that was missing was the smell of campfires burning. It took a few seconds to shake herself out of her reverie.

  “Miss Hodges? Are you alright?” General Comiston asked.

  “Huh? Oh, sorry General. The fish and the vinegar took me back to a specific event in my childhood. What were you saying?”

  “I was asking if you knew more about what is troubling our guests.”

  Jennifer let the mouthful of fish melt in her mouth before responding. “Your bribes are getting better, General. I never thought you would be able to top cheese fries.” She took a pull on her cola then prepared her answer. “Yes. Yes I do know why they are becoming restless and anxious. Unfortunately, that pesky Honest Broker thing prevents me from saying what it is. I can say that it is big. I can’t say how big without betraying their trust and putting some of them at risk. I can’t even give you an example analogous to it without it being plain what it is.” She put her fork down and turned to look directly at him. “It’s big. It’s scary big. It’s got me this close to being freaked out. Remember that blithely naive girl you met here in this clinic a couple of weeks ago? She is now incredibly concerned. Anxious. Nervous —. Maybe even scared.”

  The general dropped his fork in response.

  “There’s more,” she said, as if to add to his discomfort. “I had a patient earlier this morning — good smart kid. His mom was my Grade 3 teacher. In fact, she was preggers with him when she taught me. Anyways, he was skateboarding on Twin Elm, not the flat part here in ‘downtown Jewel’, but where it turns and drops down into the ravine. He thought he saw several individuals descending the far wall, not far from here. Do you have motion detectors or infrared cameras watching over the ravine?”

  “No. We have satellite pictures and foot patrols. Perhaps he only imagined seeing them.”

  “You don’t have any sort of detectors?”

  “Not this close. We have the mesa east of town carpeted with troops doing frequent patrols. Any intruders would have to get past over a thousand soldiers in order to get to the ravine here. Our intention was to keep everyone not entitled to come here well away from here. The perimeter is almost 30 miles in all directions.”

  “You need to do something about the ravine. Pardon me for telling you what to do General, since your specialty is military operations and mine is tending to the sick, but we can’t take any chances.”

  The general looked like he was going to take umbrage, but pushed the feelings aside. “I can’t see how anyone could’ve gotten this close. Are you sure he wasn’t seeing something?”

  Jennifer chewed on her lower lip. “Yeah. There’s something else that will tend to support his claim. First though, there’s a cleft in the far wall that runs from the top of the cliff all the way down to the floor of the ravine. It’s almost but not quite straight down, and it is surrounded on three sides. Your guys down by The Rock wouldn’t be able to see it. Guys patrolling on this side of the ravine wouldn’t be able to see it. There’s a spot, just as the road does the lower switchback and plunges down to the ravine floor, where, if you get down low, you can make it out. Tony would’ve been in a crouch on his board, leaning hard to make the turn. He might have been able to see into the cleft.”

  She put another bite of the fish into her mouth, waiting for a response from the general. When none was forthcoming, she brought forth her corroborating information. “A few days ago, I had four men come into the clinic separately, all with the same injuries — cuts, scrapes, bruises and sprains. In all of the cases, the sprains were severe enough to seem like possible bone breaks. I had never seen any of these men before. They came in separately, throughout the day, and they paid by insurance. The same company. If you remember, Wednesday overnight was particularly stormy with high winds coming from the south. The opening of the cleft faces south. If these four individuals had been climbing down the cliff via the cleft, the winds would’ve slammed them into the rock face repeatedly, if they were descending by ropes. And they would’ve descended by rope, I would think, if they were doing it in the dark.”

  “I still can’t see how—”, Comiston started to say.

  “With respect, General, the how doesn’t particularly matter right now. What matters is ensuring that this access point is completely and utterly sealed off, and to find these individuals. They were hanging around the Baptist church on Sunday, wandering the gardens and looking at the gravestones in the cemetery there.”

  “What would be the significance of the church? Or the cemetery?”

  “Highest spot in town,” she told him. “Built on a hill four blocks west of Main. When I was a kid, my dad would volunteer to go in every 4th Saturday and clean the place. He would take me with him, thankfully, to get me away from my mom. I used to climb up into the bell tower when he wasn’t looking. You can see the football field and the school from up there.”

  The general’s face went white. “I’ll get guards posted there right away.”

  “The advantage we have, General, is we know that the key event will take place in about a week and a half. There is no way anyone other than you, me and the Wakira can know this. If they are bad guys, then they don’t know when they can do the most damage. But if you put guards at the church, they’ll know that we know about them. And they might end up coming up with an alternative plan, whatever that might be. Right now, they’ve probably gone to ground, waiting for whatever time to arrive before they act. I know I’m overstepping my bounds again, but why not just keep an eye on the church? Close off the hole in the security scheme, and start doing random identity checks. I’m sure that your people canvassed everyone in town the first couple of days, and you have lists of names of people who belong. Detain anyone not on those lists. Or, follow them discreetly.” Jennifer shrugged.

  “Are you sure they can’t know when whatever is supposed to take place?”

  “Absolutely. I only found out Friday. And until a few minutes ago, I was the only human to know.”

  Comiston pushed his meal away, still mostly uneaten. “And the survey? Is it still ongoing?”

  Jennifer shook her head. “I don’t think so. Myka seems to be locked away in his office compiling the results. I don’t think our history allows us to hold our heads high.”

  “Still no idea if there are consequences for failing?”

  “None that I can tell. They are very silent when it comes to the survey.”

  Comist
on sighed. “Not enough information. I need to know more. Can’t you tell me anything about this impending event?”

  She thought for a moment. She wanted to help him grasp the importance of the Emperor’s arrival without the Wakira realizing what she had done. “Do you remember the poker reference from a couple of weeks back? Well — I’m not totally sure, but I have a feeling that I just got dealt a pair of twos.” Jennifer watched his body sag. “And now you know, in a very small way, why I feel freaked.”

  Jennifer got an unexpected visitor a little after 3pm. “Barb? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be resting for tonight’s shift? It’s your long week, right?”

  “Hi Jenn. I just rescued John’s mother. She called to say that Billy was becoming ‘too helpful’ in the kitchen. Apparently, when she wasn’t looking, he took the potatoes she had cleaned and peeled outside and started tossing them into the air.”

  Jennifer looked aghast. “My cheese fries?”

  Barb was surprised by her response. “Don’t worry. She has more potatoes still unpeeled for tomorrow.” She eyed Jennifer closely, looking for any sort of facial tell.

  “Oh good. Cause, y’know Barb, I’d really hate to have to beat up your 5-year-old,” she deadpanned.

  Barb waited for Jennifer to start laughing. When she didn’t, she exclaimed, “Dammit Jennifer Allison Hodges! You scare me every time you do that!”

  “Next you’re going to tell me that I should’ve been an actress,” she stated, trying to hide a smirk.

  “Well you should have. I almost believed you.”

  Jennifer found it increasingly hard to not laugh. “Who said I was acting?” Finally, the dam burst, and she laughed so hard, there were tears in her eyes.

  “You cow!” Barb exclaimed. “You wicked wicked cow! You do this to me every time! I’m going to get you for this. Somehow.” She started laughing, then added, pretending to be angry, “Bethy was right — we should never have hired a teenager.”

  Jennifer snorted a couple more laughs. “As if I would hurt him. He loves his Auntie Jenny. So, what did you do with him?”

  “I left him with Trudy for a few minutes. I had to stop at the bank anyways — John wanted me to see if a progress check had arrived for engineering sub-contract work he had done for the new bridge up near Valentine. I would’ve told you what I had found, but after what you said about beating up my son, I think you’ll just have to find out for yourself.” Barb gave her friend a mock-sneer.

  Both sets of eyes shifted to the toy stuffed Dalmatian on the counter. “Not Snuffy!” Barb cried out, with a nervous giggle. Jennifer’s right hand flashed out and grabbed the toy before Barb’s desperate lunge snagged the prize. “Not Snuffy!” Barb cried out again.

  In a very bad tough guy accent, Jennifer said, “Now, sing like a canary, or da dawg gets it. Unnerstand?”

  “You wouldn’t! You love Snuffy as much as I do!”

  Jennifer put her hand around the toy dog’s neck. “Da dawg means nuttin’ ta me. Now tawk!”

  “Not until you put Snuffy back down. You can’t make me. Put the dog down, Jennifer.”

  Jennifer pretended to start squeezing the neck then starting laughing hysterically. She handed it to her friend. Once they had managed to stop laughing, she said, “Y’know, the two of us are going to have to grow up sooner or later.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Barb told her. “I’m still denying the fact that I’m almost 9 years older than you.” She wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes before continuing. “If you have your bank card with you, go to the bank after your shift. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

  Jennifer looked exasperated. “C’mon Barb. I spared your toy dog; I promise not to beat up your kid for his lunch money. Tell me.”

  Barb’s eyes gleamed. “We got our back pay. There were thousands of dollars in the joint account. Even with John’s check, there should’ve only been like $500. We got our back pay!”

  Jennifer hesitated. “That doesn’t make sense. Four days ago, they were threatening to throw me in jail and to seize my dad’s house, which they couldn’t have done, and now they’ve given us the money they owe us? That doesn’t make sense.”

  Dammit, Barb thought. This isn’t working. I told Bethy she was too smart! “Maybe they were covering their butts. While I was at the bank, I overheard someone saying that the county offices were raided this morning.”

  Jennifer’s eyes went wide. “Raided?! By whom?”

  “Feds, I guess. FBI, or some other member of the alphabet soup gang. I don’t care. I’m just happy we got our money.”

  Jennifer still looked dubious. “Maybe it was something else. I don’t know — something else. I can’t see the county finally coughing up the money. I guess I’ll find out after you relieve me.” She grabbed the dog from Barb’s hand and held it up in front of Barb’s face. In a childlike voice, Jennifer said, “Don’t let her hurt me, Mommy.” She put the dog back down onto the counter, leaving the joke threat unspoken.

  “You are SUCH a bad girl, Jenn! Bethy’s going to send you to bed without supper when she finds out.” They laughed and embraced. “Seeya just before six. John and I are going to have a celebratory glass of wine with our early supper.”

  “I sure hope you’re right, Barb,” she said as the other headed for the door. “It’ll be nice having money again.” She walked to the window and waved as Barb passed.

  “I think she bought it,” Barb said to herself as she headed back to the Jensen house.

  “This is a bunch of hooey,” Jennifer told her hidden audience.

  Sure enough, when Jennifer accessed her account, there were thousands of dollars there. She took $200 out and went to the All-in-One store and dropped half the money on fresh food and treats for her and her dad. She actually enjoyed preparing a “real meal” for a change, and spent some extra time with her dad helping with the clean up. She chose to ignore, for the moment, that the amount in the account was far more than it should have been.

  Chapter 12

  Wednesday turned out to be quiet and uneventful. Sure enough, the general brought cheese fries with the meal, though this time, he didn’t bother getting any for himself. He told Jennifer that the army had set up heat detectors, pointed at the mesa on the other side of the ravine, so if anyone did manage to get that close to the landing site, the army would be able to respond in minutes. Jennifer had no news to report, and the two of them decided to not bother rehashing the things that they already knew.

  After supper, Jennifer hopped the backyard fence and walked down the gravel slope to the field. She was surprised to see Poke wandering around the south endzone. “Greetings, Beloved Sister,” Jennifer said in the language.

  “Jennifer, that is far too formal for an everyday greeting,” Poke responded in English.

  “Yeah, I know. I just wanted to try it out. I’m still having pronunciation problems, aren’t I?”

  Poke smiled down at her student. “Yes. You still sound like a preschooler — is that the correct term? — but you are getting better. It is just a matter of time and practice.”

  “Time. We’re running out of that. He’ll be here in 9 days, right? I have to be ready for him, Poke. Even if just for Myka’s sake.”

  Poke placed her right hand on Jennifer’s left shoulder. “You need to stop blaming yourself for what has happened. Who can understand why he bonded with you then, and not earlier? For that matter, why he bonded with you at all. Medical research facilities on Homeworld are running multiple simulations trying to discover what happened and why. They still have no answer.”

  Just then, they heard a mangled cry for help. Without hesitation, Jennifer ran to the source, behind the ship on the side facing the school. She put the brakes on as soon as she saw what was there. A male Wakira, armed with some sort of hand weapon, pressed against the head of a female. He was sitting on one of the team benches on the east sidelines.

  “Greetings, male,” Jennifer said in their language. “Can I be of assi
stance?”

  “Stay away, alien!” he shouted at her. “Don’t make me hurt this female.”

  Crap, Jenn. What do you do now? Hostage-taking 101. Speak slowly and softly. Gain the confidence of the bad guy. Show sympathy towards him and his situation. Move slowly forward. Get him to agree to various small things, so that it won’t seem confrontational to him. Or does that only work on television? Does it work with Wakira?

  “There is no need to hurt the female. Look, I am unarmed. I cannot harm you. I cannot overpower you. You are still in control of the situation.” She took a small slow step forward. She heard footsteps behind her. Turning her back to the male, she told those just arriving to stay back and stay quiet. “What seems to be the problem, male?”

  “Stay back. Please don’t make me hurt her.” Jennifer looked more closely at the female and noticed that she was losing consciousness.

  “You are hurting her already. The arm you have around her neck — it is cutting off the flow of blood to her brain. You need to loosen it or change the position of your forearm.”

  He looked more closely at his hostage. He relaxed his left arm ever so slightly to reduce the pressure on her neck.

  “That’s better,” Jennifer said gently, as she switched back and forth between their language and English. “She seems to be regaining her senses.” Another very small step forward. This time, no warning came forth. “Do you know who I am, male?”

  “You are the alien female that everyone is talking about.”

  Everyone is talking about me? “As you would say it, my name is Jennifer of the family Hodges. I’m afraid I don’t know my clan or tribe names. We don’t learn that here on Terra. What is your name?”

  “I am Medahso. Of the family Konatai.”

  “Where are you from, Medahso? Where is home for you?”