Progenitor

by Sherri Fulmer Moorer

  “Is it hard for you to describe how you feel?”

  Kalea sighed. “That’s just it; I don’t feel much anymore. My senses are heightened, and I think and react faster. Your scans told you that. And you’re right I don’t need as much sleep. I don’t get cold like I used to either. In one way it’s amazing, because I feel like I’m seeing the world in a whole new way. I perceive so much more. I understand better. I can see how things fit together and work in ways that I never understood before. But I don’t have an emotional reaction to it. It’s like everything I see, hear, and experience is a data dump. I see the world in a new way, but I’m not excited or amazed by it. I’m just – here.” She paused. “But then again, I started feeling like that when Uncle Carson started going downhill in July, before all of this started. I know what’s happening physically, thanks to you and the great people on your study. I’m not sure what’s happening emotionally. I don’t know if these changes caused it, or if it was already there from dealing with Uncle Carson’s decline.”

  Annaliese forced a smile. “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”

  “Exactly.”

  Annaliese shifted on the couch. “Stress can do that to you. It could be that your lack of emotional reaction is rooted in watching Dad’s health fail, and these physical changes forced on you prevented you from processing the emotional aspects of what was happening.”

  “Was it forced on any of us?”

  “What do you mean?” Annaliese asked. “Did you have an experience where you consented to this alien energy coming into you?”

  Kalea shook her head. “I don’t know. I have so many questions and no answers. My senses are heightened, but my memory for everything that happened since Uncle Carson sat up in that bed and grabbed my leg is spotty. It’s not just lapses; it’s questioning my own memories.” She paused. “I can remember us having Thanksgiving together year before last. I remember all of our vacations together, and your wedding. I remember Kieran winning his Senate seat and the victory speech we helped his staff write. I remember trick-or-treating with you and Avery at Halloween and caroling at Christmas. I remember dances and dissertations and football games and festivals. I remember how jubilant I was when I made the Olympic archery team after I got my Master’s degree. I felt like I was on top of the world when I won a gold medal in the women’s individuals and the women’s team rounds. That was such a high experience.” She sighed. “I wish I could feel that strongly again, especially the good feelings. I remember times and seasons, celebrations and mourning, triumphs, and tragedies. We’ve been through all of that together. But these past almost six months are a fog, and I don’t know why.”

  “It could be post traumatic stress from Uncle Carson’s situation. That was a lot to go through, and you had a front row seat to the entire thing.”

  “I don’t know. I’m usually more emotionally resilient than that.”

  Annaliese nodded. That was true. Kalea had always been the tough one that would keep a cool head and stand firm while everybody else succumbed to emotion. She remembered how collected Kalea was when handling her father’s funeral. In fact, she thought sadly, that might be the last time that Kalea seemed like herself. She shook off the thought. “Maybe it has something to do with the energy. I wish we had more time to study it.”

  Kalea tipped her head, studying Annaliese. “You really think this is over, don’t you?”

  Annaliese turned her gaze away, staring at the dark street outside. A man walked by with his dog, his breath forming puffs in the cold air. “I have a bad feeling about it. They’re having the meeting at seven o’clock on a Friday night. Nobody has meetings about things they’re serious about on Fridays, especially on Friday night. This is going to be a grandiose blow off.”

  “Don’t be so sure. It’s being live streamed worldwide.”

  Annaliese stared at Kalea in shock. “What?”

  “I saw something on one of the news apps today. Every nationwide news network will be broadcasting it.”

  Annaliese groaned, grabbing a nearby pillow and sticking her face in it. “Then we’re going to be humiliated in front of the entire world.”

  “That’s not true. It’s a prime time transmission, in a choice time slot when everybody is home from work and can tune in. I’m sure they don’t want to look like idiots with the world watching.”

  “I don’t think they care, as long as it gains popularity with their constituents and the people funding their campaigns. Chewing us up and spitting us out on the Internet may be just what they need to tip more votes toward funding the war effort.” She tossed the pillow back to its spot on the couch. “I wonder if the others on the research team know.”

  “They do,” Kalea said softly.

  Annaliese stared at Kalea, deciding not to pursue the question of how she knew. She shifted on the couch again. “We better prepare for arguments about why our funds shouldn’t be diverted to the war effort. They’ll probably try to pass this off as an interesting astronomical anomaly that’s had no impact on anything important.” She smiled at Kalea. “Unless you can conjure up some more of that electricity you used in your appearance at the school to change their perception.”

  Kalea laughed uncomfortably. “I’ll do all I can to help you at the hearing, but I’m not sure what they want from me. Do you know why they called me?”

  “We had to send them our preliminary research after our meeting on Monday so they could review it to prepare for the hearing,” Annaliese said. “I think they called you because you were the first person affected by this, and you seem to be affected more than any of the other subjects.”

  “Really?”

  Annaliese nodded. “The results from the tests across the board are consistent. They show the same thing in all of you, but it seems like everything is slightly heightened in you. There’s more of that energy in you.”

  “Is that right?”

  “It’s not much,” Annaliese said, “but I guess it was enough to get their attention.”

  “Do you know if they called any of the other subjects to testify?”

  “No; just you.”

  “That’s interesting,” Kalea mumbled.

  “It is,” Annaliese said. “Kalea, I’m going to ask you straight. Do you have any idea what this is or why it’s here?”

  Kalea smiled, but it looked forced. “Don’t you think I’d tell you if I knew?”

  “I’d like to think so, but everything that’s happened has me doubting my own judgment,” Annaliese said. “There has to be a reason, and we don’t have the time or the data to figure it out. I’ve heard the chatter coming out of Capitol Hill, and they doubt our findings. We’re on the brink of worldwide war, and they don’t want to hear about alien threats and interstellar hazards when we have enough threats right here on Earth.” She paused. “I don’t know if they’ll believe our theories. That they called you in to testify means they’re willing to consider it, but if we can’t tell them why this happened, then I’m afraid it’s over. The study ends, everybody goes home, and whatever happens, happens. We’ve lost too many people to this, and I can’t stand the thought of stopping now. If there’s any hope of helping you or anybody else, I need to know why. Please tell me something inside of you knows what’s really going on.”

  Kalea looked around the room, thinking. Finally, she sighed and leaned back on the couch. “I’m sorry, Annaliese. I can’t tell you why.”

  Annaliese stared at Kalea darkly. “You can’t, or you won’t?”

  Kalea ran her hand through her hair, pushing it away from her face. “I don’t know if I know, and if I do, then I don’t know how to say it in a way that would make sense to you or to anybody else. It’s one of those things that I can’t put into words.” She stared at Annaliese sympathetically. “I’m sorry. Maybe I’ll work something out by the hearing, but will that really help? You have nothing to back it up, and neither do I.”

  “I know,” Annaliese said. “I’m grasping at straws. Maybe I need
to face reality and admit that it’s over. Maybe I need to let it go, and go back to my normal life.” She laughed. “If that’s possible.”

  “It’s not.”

  Annaliese stared at Kalea, who seemed to be breathing slightly heavier. “How do you know that?”

  Kalea calmed instantly, turning an innocent stare on Annaliese. “I just do. You should too.” She reached over and patted Annaliese’s hand. “I don’t think it’s over. There’s no denying how far you’ve come. Try to relax. I’m sure they realize that we can’t go back, and the only way is to move forward. We’ll convince them. They will know, and they’ll receive a great revelation at this hearing. Trust me. Everything will change.”

  Annaliese groaned. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  Chapter 43

  “Is everything ready?” Kalea straightened her scarf as she spoke softly into her phone in the small room in the Capitol where she waited for her appearance at the hearing.

  “We’re ready,” Bruce’s voice said over the small speaker. “Are you sure you don’t want some of us in there with you? We could get several people in without the guards noticing.”

  “No, it’s all right. Stay at your post. You’ll know when I’m ready.”

  “Roger that,” Bruce said.

  Kalea ended the call and walked to the full length mirror. Her grey and pink pantsuit with her long hair twirled in French twist was appropriately professional, yet soothing. She was an unfortunate victim of circumstance. She laughed. All the unfortunate victims were dead, leaving behind the best, the brightest, and the strongest of the species. It was just what they needed. They may be able to save this planet yet.

  Kalea pulled at her pink scarf again, pondering whether to take it off. It was hot against her neck, but Annaliese said it added a nice touch to the outfit, so she left it. She practiced walking around the room in her two-inch high-heeled shoes, grateful that she wouldn’t have to clomp around in those silly stilts that human women loved for no good reason. Why did they go to so much trouble to look taller? It made no sense. It was a universal truth that intelligence and ability attributed to true power; not stature our physical appearance. The smart ones that acted with purpose and wisdom won the wars, while the beautiful ones withered away.

  It wouldn’t be a problem for her much longer. The time was close now. It was a matter of minutes.

  Why am I nervous? She wondered.

  It’s part of your humanity. That hasn’t gone away. It’s been enhanced to make you ready for what you have to do.

  A knock on the door jolted her to reality as a tall man in a security uniform poked his head in the room. “Ms. Kerner, are you ready?”

  The time for revelation is upon us.

  Kalea stared in the mirror, feeling as if she were looking at herself as she truly was for the first time, or maybe, the last. Time would tell whether this was a beginning or an ending. It could be either or both. She straightened her scarf and turned, joining the guard at the door.

  “Yes, let’s go.”

  Chapter 44

  “You realize this sounds ridiculous,” Senator Vickers said from his seat in the center of the long table at the head of the room. The line of senators and representatives sitting to each side of him nodded and murmured their agreement.

  Annaliese gestured to the images of projected windows with scans, pictures, charts, graphs, and bullet point lists used by each section head to build the theory of alien energy on Earth. “I know this is the stuff of science fiction, but that’s what these findings indicate. There is no other explanation. This energy has an interstellar biological component from a system a little over four light years away, and it’s binding with human biological material. It might not be what we expected from our first contact with extraterrestrial life, but it’s what we’ve got. There’s no question about it.”

  “You really think it’s aliens?” Senator Vickers asked. He turned to Kalea. “Do you feel like an alien, Ms. Kerner?”

  Kalea sat up straight, her hands folded on the table in front of her where she was seated at the end of the table next to the spot Annaliese occupied. “I don’t feel like myself.”

  “Meaning?”

  “I explained that in my testimony,” Kalea said. “Since my uncle sat up in his hospital bed and grabbed my ankle on August third of last year, I’ve had several unexplained symptoms, some of which were broadcast on national webcasts. A broken foot healed. A childhood scar is gone. I haven’t had any migraines or sinus and allergy symptoms since that day. I’ve had memory lapses over the past six months, mostly during times of high stress or emotional tension. I restarted the electricity in my aunt’s home during a storm by touching her fuse box, and I shocked a man into a coma when he fired a gun in a school auditorium where I was part of an interview panel. After that, my metabolism sped up. I sleep four or five hours a night. I drink three gallons of water a day. All of my senses are heightened. Sometimes, I can see in infrared and hear pitches outside of normal human range. I’ve have periods of time when my memory fails, like the time my aunt took me to the hospital in October. I blacked out nearly three days, and during most of that time, I was perfectly functional and doing curious things.”

  “Like walking to the church cemetery three miles from your home,” Senator Vickers tapped his finger on his computer. “All of this is in the report. What I’m asking you is this: are you an alien?”

  “No,” Kalea said.

  “Are you inhabited by an alien?” Senator Vickers asked.

  “Yes.”

  Annaliese turned toward Kalea, her eyes wide as the room erupted in gasps and chatter. Kalea stood, raising her hand. Sparks erupted from her fingertips, which caused the chatter to increase. Senator Vickers banged his gavel. “Order!” He motioned to the Sergeant-at-Arms. “Put her behind a force field!”

  The Sergeant-at-Arms stared at Kalea skeptically as Annaliese walked to her side. “Kalea, what are you doing?”

  Kalea’s eyes glowed silver. “I told you I’d help you.”

  The Sergeant-at-Arms slowly reached for Kalea’s arm. She plunged her hand into his arm, sending a blue blot through his body that caused him to convulse. Another guard rushed forward and escorted Kalea to a small booth next to the table of Senators and Representatives, tapping buttons on the wall to erect the force field. It crackled into place around her chair. She sat, crossing her legs. “It took you six months to decide I’m a threat?”

  “How many others?” someone at the table muttered.

  “Five thousand in the study, but no telling how many more.”

  “They could be everywhere, doing anything!”

  “How can we contain this?”

  “You can’t!” Kalea shouted. “It’s too late. You’ve been so involved in your petty fights that you didn’t see what was right in front of you, and you have no idea of what’s coming.”

  “We haven’t been involved in any fights,” Senator Vickers said.

  “Yes you have, Senator. How much covert funding have you funneled to the rebel forces in the East since the tensions rose?”

  The room went silent as Kalea stood and pointed at Annaliese’s computer, causing windows with news articles to pop up in the center of the room. “A terrorist cell put down here; a Communist cell put down there. Do you think the smaller, democratic nations have that kind of money or power? No! Look closer,” she flicked her hands, causing the screens to increase their zoom. “Those tanks. Those guns. Those aren’t Japanese, Indian, or even Israeli.” She zoomed in on a tank and a gun, on a small decal of a star. She clicked, and a window opened showing the star as a symbol for Freedom Fighters Defense, based in Omaha, Nebraska. The noise in the room rose again. Kalea smiled. “I could show you more,” she waved her hands to open windows, zooming in and bringing up the same company name on vehicles, weapons, and guns. “Billions of dollars. You said it was for Homeland Security and Interstellar Research, but I wouldn’t be here if it were. You would have seen us coming two years
ago. You would have realized that you’ve had one of us in storage on your space station from a comet fragment that you forgot about two years ago.” She swept her hands, causing the windows to flip and show more articles from the Web. “We saw you then, but you didn’t see us. Instead, this is what you had your eyes on. All of that money that you said it was for highway improvements, but there haven’t been any major highway renovations or projects anywhere in the country in over five years,” she flicked her hand to open one window showing a timeline of highway structures and maintenance in America. “You said it was to help the banks, the schools, housing, healthcare; but all that’s gone up is inflation for the past five years,” she said, random flicks of her hand bringing up articles on dropped projects, reduced funding, and declining numbers across each area. She waved her hands bringing the war images back up. “Eighty-five percent of our troops are deployed at any given time to ‘undisclosed locations’. Their own families don’t know where they are, and how many have been forced to bury empty coffins because there was no body to ship home, and no reason why?” she said, waving her hand at articles on deployments, family stories, and images of grieving families at funerals with flag draped coffins. “You say you aren’t at war, but you have been for five years. That’s why we’re here. You’ve been so consumed with your petty problems on this rock you call a world, that you didn’t realize there are bigger problems out there,” she said, waving her hand to bring up a screen projecting space. She widened it, showing Galen’s image of the transmission origins.

  “Even now, you won’t give the Space Exploration Society or the team you commissioned what they need to see what’s truly there. The secret is too big to hide now, and you have to tell the truth, to yourself and to everybody else. You want to make your covert war official. You want to deny us, but you can’t because it’s too late. We’re here, and you can’t do anything about it.”

  “How do we know this isn’t a natural interstellar phenomenon?” Chairman Vickers asked.