I smiled, which seemed to confuse her. “So, you do have feelings for me.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Not the point?” I asked. “Seriously? There is no other point. This world is on the brink. We are on the front lines of this war—which hopefully we are about to get a break from—and life is more uncertain than ever. Don’t you see? It’s so hard to find love and in the midst of this q-morph, alien madness we’ve found it. It’s right here. We can’t turn our backs on it.”
“Nik… please, don’t.”
I was wound up now, the words rushing forth. I couldn’t stop myself. “You worry about the decisions I will make if we are a couple and fighting together. That I’ll somehow lose my mind because you are there and sacrifice the world for you.” I paused and chuckled rather lamely. “But you are what I am fighting for, whether we are a couple or not.”
“Me?”
“Not you exactly, but what you represent.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I am fighting for this world and the people I love and all the things I love about it. I am fighting for desert sunsets, where the dust in the air makes the sky glow orange. I am fighting for my parents and my friends so they can lead their lives without these kinds of worries. I am fighting for Super Bowl Sunday and Thanksgiving, New Years, and bad sci-fi. I am fighting for love, because that is what it all comes down to. The people I love and the things they love. And you know what, Licia? You represent love for me. Whether you want to or not. You represent what I want the most, what I have always wanted the most, and that is what I fight for. I fight for you.” I felt myself slouch as the words abated. I was drained emotionally. Her eyes glistened with tears, but I knew it wasn’t enough.
“You are so romantic,” she said, her hand brushing at my shoulder. “I do love that about you. But it’s not enough, Nik. We have to keep our heads on. We have to be practical. If we survive this, then we can entertain the romantic. But, for now, we must stay grounded in the practical.” She stepped back so our bodies were no longer interacting. I missed it.
“Practical?” I asked.
“Yes, practical.”
“Okay, I’ll give you practical.” I stepped closer until the tendrils of energy started to jump from skin to skin. “We are meant to be together. Not in some romantic sense, but quite literally.” I moved closer and the exchange intensified. “Our bodies know each other. We are stronger together than we are apart. And we are a team. Like it or not, the military will be using us as a team because it’s obvious. I couldn’t have taken down that asteroid without you. Do you agree?”
She nodded slowly.
“We need to know each other—our quirks, our habits. The better we know each other the better we can work together, the more powerful we will become. In short, intimacy. We are partners in this fight, and if we are partners emotionally, romantically, then we will be better able to meet this challenge, to rely on each other to survive.”
Her eyebrows came together and she blinked rapidly as tears began to run down her cheeks. She opened her mouth and shook her head, her eyes leaving mine and studying the ground we stood on. “I… we… I can’t, Nik. I can’t.” With a blinding flash of light she was gone and all I was left with was the smoldering remains of the scrubs she had been wearing.
Interlude 1
Double Romantic
Summer 2025, Casita de Soledad, Central Arizona
Licia cleared her throat behind me. She had developed quite a habit of reading over my shoulder while I wrote.
I spun around in my chair, covering my irritation with a smile, “Yes, dear?”
“I don’t remember it like that,” she said, her face serious.
“What?” I asked.
“That speech. First all romantic and then all practical and then double romantic. I don’t remember it being that… that… that polished, that sweet, that…” she trailed off as she came over and sat in my lap, kissing me soundly.
I kissed her back, giving as good as I got. “What do you remember me saying?”
She shrugged, her index finger tracing my eyebrow and then my lower lip. “I don’t remember the exact words, but you couldn’t have been that polished or else how could I have resisted?”
“I don’t know how you resisted in the first place,” I told her, pulling her close. Our bodies did their thing, exchanging neutronic and electrical energy, the thrill of it undiminished by the years. “What was going on for you that day?”
She sighed and leaned back, looking in my eyes. “I was afraid. Your arguments, while I don’t remember them being quite that eloquent, just made it harder.”
“Cause you had the hots for me,” I offered. She nodded. “And it took everything you had just to keep your hands off of me.” I tickled her ribs and she laughed and pushed my hand away.
“Yes, something like that.”
“What were you afraid of?” I asked.
She shrugged again. “What we’re all afraid of: the end that comes whenever there is a beginning. I eventually told you about my previous relationship, but the pain of it was still too near for me to trust you.”
I nodded slowly. She had been hurt deeply by the man that came before me. They had spent five years together, and the end had come suddenly and dramatically about six months before we met and after her transformation to Lightningirl. I had had a similar experience with Ashely Long, but further in the past.
“So should I change it? You know, make it less elegant, more fumbling, not as romantic?”
“No… God no,” she said with a smile. “What you can do is say those words to me with the same passion you did on that day. Tell me the romantic part and the practical and then the double romantic part. Say the words like they’re brand new.” She stood up and backed away a few paces until our bodies stopped interacting. “I’ll see if I can resist you again.”
“And to think they call me the romantic one.”
“Well, just because I’m not ‘romantic’ doesn’t mean that I don’t like a little romance now and then.” She stood there staring at me, waiting for me to start, daring me to go all goopy romantic on her.
I took a deep breath. I glanced at the words I had written and then turned away. I didn’t want to say the same thing, just be in the same space and see what happened. I looked at her in her khaki shorts and black tank top. Petite with long black hair and lovely curves. Beautiful doesn’t go half far enough in describing her. To me she is the most beautiful thing in the world, the reason I get up each day, the reason I draw breath.
She smiled playfully as I stood up and rubbed my sweating palms on my shorts. I took a step forward, but she backed up, keeping out of the reach of our neutrino/electrical reaction.
I stopped and tried to gather my thoughts again. I was out of practice. We weren’t in the early phase of the relationship when big words could make a difference. We had been together for two decades and often a look or a hug was more than enough.
But she had asked and it was a reasonable thing to ask for, so I finally opened my mouth and started talking.
“You know all those romantic clich�s, the ones in the sappy romantic comedies, that I love and you tolerate?” She nodded. “Well, for me and you, they are literally true. You do complete me, not just emotionally, but in every way—our powers together are so much more than they are apart.” She smiled slyly and took a step forward as thin tendrils of energy started to jump between our bodies. “I am a better man with you, so much more than I could have been without you. You are, quite literally, the only one for me. Who else could handle my radioactive personality?” She nodded, moving closer, encouraging me to continue. “Together we changed the world, apart, I shudder to think what would have happened. I can’t live without you. I would have been dead many, many times if you hadn’t been—”
Her body collided with mine, cutting me off. “Enough,” she whispered as she held me tightly.
“See, you can’t resist me.”
I felt her head, which was buried in my chest, shake as she said, “No I can’t. I never really could.”
Chapter 19
Friends
Late Winter 2005, Luke Air Force Base, Arizona
I spent the next several days with Sarah as she recovered. I took it on myself to be her personal bodyguard. To say I didn’t trust the military would have been only a slight exaggeration. Even though General Marcus had finally relented, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth.
So I slept in a chair and had my meals brought to me. I helped her to the bathroom and made sure she ate. I tried to engage her in conversation, but she wasn’t talkative. I suspect she didn’t want to reveal too much about her society, things that we might use to our advantage, and I was the same. We both knew we were being watched. So, I introduced her to the pleasures of daytime TV.
Soap operas, game shows, travel shows, and cooking shows. Surprisingly, she loved them. And it gave us something to do, something to focus on, and something we could talk about.
It was entirely mundane and boring. I think we both loved it. And it was a big deal, spending three days with a humanoid born on another planet, talking about food and travel and the fallibility of humanoid emotions.
I say “humanoid” because she could relate to the soap operas, to what those people were going through, even though they’re so melodramatic. This comforted me. Not only did these aliens look like us, they felt like us too.
When it was time, I went with her. She was dressed in jeans and a button-down white shirt. She had taken a shower and looked just like one of us (albeit rather tall with fine blond hair and big teeth). Colonel Williams had given her some ID, a credit card, a cell phone, and some cash.
We got into a jeep that took us to the front gate of Luke Air Force Base.
“Thank you,” I told her as we rode towards the gate.
“My thanks go to you,” she said with a gentle smile. “My life is owed to you. I will be true. I will speak. What happens, I know not. I am nobody, but I will speak.”
“Thank you, Sarah. I hope that they will listen, that we can end this fighting.”
“I hope that too.”
When we arrived at the gate, I walked her to the waiting cab on the other side. She looked at the cab nervously and then back to me.
“It’s okay,” I said. “They have promised not to follow.”
She nodded and swallowed. “I fear,” she said quietly.
“I do too,” I told her. We stood there in awkward silence for what seemed like minutes. “Can I hug you good-bye?” I asked.
“What is that?” she asked.
“We saw it on TV. When friends leave each other they often embrace.” I pantomimed with my arms showing her what I meant. She nodded and I gently put my arms around her.
“Friends,” she whispered in my ear.
She pulled away and got in the cab. As it drove off I felt so much. I felt hopeful and scared, worried and grateful, and very, very confused. Some of the aliens, the ones like Sarah, were so much like us. Why were we fighting? Why did they want to kill us? Could Sarah “speak” and help us?
I didn’t get long to think about it. The private who had driven us ran up to me. “You’ve been summoned back to Palo Verde, sir. It is urgent. A helicopter is waiting.”
~~~
Colonel Williams greeted me with a sharp nod when I climbed into the helicopter. It was just the two of us and we had a few minutes to talk.
“Some things need to change,” I told him.
He looked puzzled, his green eyes searching mine, and asked, “Like what?”
“I don’t want to be in the dark anymore. I want to know what is going on. I want to be a participant, not just a tool.”
Williams sighed, his erect posture deflating somewhat. “Can I be honest with you, Nik?” he asked. I nodded in answer. “I agree, but I’m a soldier and I follow orders.”
He didn’t tell me what I wanted to hear, but his honesty was refreshing. I smiled and said, “Well I guess I’ll have to convince the right people to give the right orders.” My smile widened as I envisioned myself flying into the Oval Office and having a heart to heart with the president. “So why are we headed back to Palo Verde?”
“Intelligence has heard some chatter about a terrorist attack. It’s unverified, but we want you on site in case anything happens.”
“A terrorist attack on Palo Verde?” I asked.
Williams nodded gravely in answer. I couldn’t help but remember what Tom Tyree said: We anticipate one more attempt on your life in the near future. One from these embedded aliens.
Chapter 20
Protocol X
Late Winter 2005, Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, Arizona
I was cooped up at Palo Verde because of this “chatter.” It was nice to get fully charged in the reactor, to get some rest, to spend some time with my friend Jennifer Johnson. She was the scientist usually assigned to me and my best friend on the team. But, I quickly got bored. Colonel Williams was kind enough to ask me to stay, although we all knew that it was an order.
Serious training was not done at Palo Verde. Area 51 was the place for that, where there’s room and I can’t hurt anything. Training a controlled nuclear reaction on the site of the country’s largest nuclear reactor is not a good idea. So I worked out, jogged endlessly around the grounds, played video games, and slept.
At least no one was asking me to even pretend to be a janitor anymore. I guess saving the world will do that for you.
On the third day things got exciting, very exciting. I was in the control room, that big cement building that was Neutrinoman central, chatting with Jennifer. We were talking about Licia.
“You know,” she said, pushing her black-rimmed glasses up onto her nose, “I think she just needs a little more time. Don’t give up.”
“Not a chance,” I said with a smile. “She’s going to have a hell of a time getting rid of me. Did I tell you—”
Jennifer’s brown eyes got wide and she pressed her left hand to her ear and the headset that sat there. Her mouth opened and she blinked rapidly. Her eyes locked with mine and I saw fear—no, terror. “There is an incoming missile headed directly for us. Protocol X has been invoked.” She spoke quickly.
I hesitated. I wasn’t supposed to, that wasn’t what Protocol X was about. It was the highest level of emergency and my “orders” were to transform into Neutrinoman immediately and address the threat. But, I was standing a foot away from Jennifer. If I transformed and took off from here, I would kill her. I was in the Neutrinoman control room with half a dozen other people. If I flew straight up from here the fallout from my transformation and crashing through the roof would injure or kill many of them.
When Colonel Williams had briefed me on the protocol, I had suggested we call it “Smash.” As in “Neutrinoman Smash!” My pop culture reference to the Incredible Hulk fell flat. It seemed these military types didn’t pay much attention to the comics. And frankly, with what had happened since those cosmic rays hit the planet, it seems they should get a crash course or something. Fiction has been preparing us for superheroes for the last eighty years or more.
“The missile is inbound from the south,” Jennifer said, her voice cracking. “Go!” she shouted. “Now!”
I turned and started running. I don’t care what my orders are, I don’t kill my friends. I couldn’t do it. I know, I know, I was risking a nuclear disaster to save my friend’s life. Well, to tell you the truth I would do the same for a stranger. I’m not Superman, my powers don’t manifest benignly. I can’t fly without producing dire consequences for biological life in the vicinity.
Once my long strides had carried me a dozen feet from Jennifer I started the transformation. No emptying of pockets, no worrying about replacing my clothes. I was headed for the east entrance, but there was a technician standing there staring. “Move!” I shouted, but he didn’t or couldn’t, so I veered to the right of him and hit the wall at full sp
eed, fully transformed.
This building is brick and cement. It’s no stick-built house. I hit it hard, juicing up my nuclear reaction at the last moment so that I wouldn’t just bounce off with an imprint of my body on the wall like some Looney Tunes cartoon character. I went through, but it sucked all my momentum and I ended up in a tangle on the other side of the wall, half buried under bricks and debris. I was a bit disoriented from the impact, but got to my feet and looked to the sky.
To the south I could see a small light moving towards us with the hint of a contrail behind it. I got my bearings and took off, flying hard and fast.
For many miles south of Palo Verde, there is nothing but desert. You have to go about forty miles before you run into the small agricultural town of Gila Bend—the Gila River winds through the desert and makes a ninety-degree turn there, thus the name. There is nothing out there but sand and cactus and rattlesnakes. How had a missile been launched from there? Was it the aliens? Could it really be anyone else? Tom Tyree had warned me another attack was coming and that attack would be directed at me. Blowing up Palo Verde with me in it would not only kill me (theoretically), but it would put much of the country in crisis dealing with the nuclear fallout.
But what about Sarah? It had been three days since she was released. What about her “speaking” on our behalf? Was all her talk just talk, just a way to get away?
I didn’t have long to ponder this because the missile soon came into view. It was not the little surface-to-air missile that I had dealt with a few months ago, this thing was big. It was about four feet in diameter and about fifteen feet tall. It had this rough, homemade look to it.
As I approached, I saw a flash of movement on the cone of the missile as a purple energy ball erupted from it.
If there had been any doubt that this was alien sent, that this missile was about me, that doubt evaporated as the scintillating ball of energy shot forward. I dove down trying to avoid the energy ball, but it was too fast. It grazed my left leg, and that jet went out and I went tumbling.
Neutrinoman & Lightningirl: A Love Story, Season 1 (Episodes 1 - 3) Page 26