by John Jonas
CHAPTER 9
Cindy Young was playing solitaire and looking forward to getting out of this place. She was wearing the orange jail clothes with MCDC stenciled on them that the Maricopa County Detention Center had issued her months ago. She wanted to get out and enjoy what was left of her life before the world ended, particularly find some better food than the junk they were serving in here. She was sitting at a table in the common area of the jail pod. Each pod had twelve cells arranged in a circle with a common area in the middle. The guard station, which was enclosed in wire reinforced glass, was off to one side. There were six tables in the center and a television mounted up in the wall above the guard station. One of the guards walked over to her and said “Young, you have a visitor.”
“What? I wasn’t expecting anybody. Who is it?”
The guard said “I don’t know, not my job. Get your butt to the visitor’s room, miss popular.”
Cindy thought It can’t be Kathy, she went to visit her parents as she walked down the hall. When she walked into the visitor center Cindy recognized the man sitting at the table and said “You look familiar, sorry I don’t remember your name.” She sat down opposite him.
“I’m pretty sure we haven’t met before, I’m Jarvick. I understand you’re going to be released tomorrow.”
“Yes, I am. What can I do for you?”
Jarvick was trying to think how to get whatever information he could without telling her too much about himself.
“Why did they put you in here?”
“I broke into a federal facility, where they store uranium stuff, and they got really mad. But I had a good reason. They don’t know what I know.”
“Why did you do that? Didn’t you know you would get caught?” Jarvick asked.
“I knew I would get caught, but I wanted to get their attention, because of the dream I had, or vision, or whatever I saw.”
He thought This is odd. “What was this dream, vision, whatever; what was it about?”
Cindy went on to explain about how she had seen and felt the stranger stealing the uranium cylinders and that this man was thinking the planet was going to be destroyed very soon.
“I’m telling you it was so real, I could swear I was there.” She said.
Jarvick asked her where this facility is.
“It’s in the desert, outside of Florence. Big fences and cameras everywhere. Security was real tight.”
Jarvick asked “Do you still plan on going back to San Diego?”
“Yes, eventually. I have a friend that lives here I may stay a few days with. I figured we could spend a few days together before the world blows up.”
“I would appreciate it if we could keep in touch after your release. Where does this friend live?”
Cindy reached for the newspaper that was on another table and tore off a piece, asking a guard to borrow a pen. She wrote down the address and then said “Look, now that you’ve been here awhile, I am positive I talked to you before. It was right after I got locked up; you came and asked me how I found out about the missing uranium and that you worked at the place. I remember your hair, how white it is.”
Jarvick thought She looks familiar too; where have I seen her before? and said “Thank you very much for talking with me, I may try to contact you later.”
He walked out and decided he had to visit this facility, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. Right now he had to jump back to his ship, the computer was there and he wanted to do some research on the storage facility.
The next day, Jim Wilkins was sitting at his desk reading his emails when a very peculiar feeling came over him and his vision became blurry and dark. He thought at first he may be having a heart attack, but there was no pain, just a “floating” feeling. Then he heard a voice saying something but the sound wasn’t coming from somebody speaking, it came from his head and his thoughts.
“I need to speak to you. I’m not here to harm you, you are not in danger. Please remain calm and come outside the security gate. I need to speak to you. Do you understand? Just THINK the word YES or NO and I will hear it.”
Jim was startled by this, jumping up from his desk and then remembering that his vision wasn’t working right, sat back down and thought What the heck is this? Am I hallucinating?
Then it happened again. No, you are not hallucinating, you are hearing me and I can explain everything. Just come outside and you will see me, I am outside the security gate. The strange feeling left him and then his vision returned to normal.
Jim stayed at his desk completely stunned for five minutes, trying to figure out what just happened. He ran over in his mind several times the words “I need to speak to you.” He could feel the urgency in the words every time he remembered them, so he left his office and took the elevator up to ground level. Walking over to his car he could see somebody standing by the road outside the fence. Jim started his car and drove to where the man was, parked and got out. When he got a good look at him, Jim almost fainted. There, standing before him, was an exact duplicate of himself, as though he was looking at a mirror.
“I know this is a shock to you, but I can explain everything, if you’ll just have some patience. I think we need to go someplace where we can talk, I mean you no harm. Just listen to me and you’ll understand” the mirror image said.
Jim could only shake his head yes with his mouth open as he motioned for the stranger to get in his car. He was trying to think where they could go and talk when he remembered the little coffee shop he and Sylvia went to on one of their first dates. It was about 5 miles from here in a quiet little neighborhood strip center. Jim drove in silence while his twin looked around as if he was on a tour. When they reached the coffee shop, they both walked in accompanied by stares from the two patrons that were seated at the counter. Jim found a booth in the back that had cracks in the vinyl seat covers but it was out of earshot from the others. Jim ordered coffee; his guest did not want anything. After the waitress left, Jim said “Okay, who are you? I don’t remember having a twin, or my parents never told me.”
The stranger said “My name is Jarvick, and you are right, I am your twin brother.”
A hundred questions raced through his head, causing Jim to sit there for a few seconds, and then he asked “Where have you been? Why wasn’t I told about you?” then his head got fuzzy again and he could hear his thoughts say “WE are from another planet, born of the same mother. We are twins.” Jim’s head cleared up again and he said “So you are the one doing that to me. How is that possible?”
Jarvick began to explain “I know this may sound preposterous to you but we were born on another planet, twins, of the same mother. Shortly after we were born, one of us had to be taken to another planet, and you were chosen. There was no reason or rule as to which one of us was to be relocated, but it had to be done. You were taken from our home planet to this one and placed up for adoption.”
Jim thought This guy may look like me but he’s nuts.
Fuzzy feeling NO I’M NOT, I’M TELLING THE TRUTH. Fuzzy feeling goes away.
“Did you do that? Cut that out!”
“Do you believe me yet?” asked Jarvick.
Reluctantly, Jim said “I’m beginning to. Why separate us and bring me here? Are we aliens or something?”
“We can get into the “alien” definition later, but for now let me go on.
I , uh , WE are from a planet called Gavilon. It is approximately one-fourth of a light year away from here, in another part of our galaxy. It is the same type and class of a planet as this one, Earth, but one fourth smaller. The problem is that when twins are born on Gavilon, which is an extremely rare event, one of them must be taken away. The nearest habitable planet of the same class is Earth, so here you are.”
“Why do you have to separate twins so far away? Is there some type of disease we have?”
“Not quite, but close. Gavilonian twins are born with an extremely strong telepathic connection that cannot be broken or controlled until a later age. Twins have no
chance at a normal life until one of them has had training that teaches him or her to control it; and then the relocated twin was supposed to be returned to receive training and then reunited with the sibling. It was the only way.” Jarvick spread his hands out, palms up, as if to say he was finished.
Jim asked “So why am I still here?”
“The practice was halted some years ago because a medication was found that enable the twins to shut down the telepathy. A few slipped through the cracks, like us, when the parents died and the records got lost. The Directorate decided that it was better to leave the few left where they were.”
Jim took a minute to wrap his head around all of this and then asked “Did you go through the training? You jumped into my head a couple of times.”
“I went through the training and about the time I finished, the practice was stopped. I also have the medication with me that helps control it, which is why you are not jumping into my head. If I didn’t have the pills, we would be having a difficult time communicating right now. My thoughts would overwhelm you to the point of confusion and chaos.”
“I think I get it, so why are you here now? Did you come to get me and take me back?
I’m married now and I’m happy here.” Jim said defensively.
“No, I’m not here to abduct you, I came here on a police matter; I’m a detective for the Gavilon security force. Earth is the only planet that has uranium in this galaxy, which is banned on our planet, and we detected its presence recently.”
Jim’s mouth fell open, the connection now dawning on him “Oh, I see” he said very slowly, drawing it out, understanding now showing on his face. “And you think that guy that popped in and stole it is somebody from Gavilon?”
“Precisely.”
“So, how can I help?” Jim asked.
Jarvick thought about it and said “Tell me everything about the event when the theft occurred.”
Jim went on to tell Jarvick about the discovery of the missing cylinders, then the review of the video; where he saw a man materialize in the vault, grab the cylinders, then disappear.
“I have to see this video. Is it possible?” Jarvick asked.
Jim thought about this and then said “I’ll have to talk with the Security chief, but it may be possible. I’ll have to get a copy of the video and take it off the premises. There’s no possible way I can bring you in as a guest. Even if I could, it would bring up too many questions, walking in with a twin. I’m on record as not having any brother.”
“When can you get this copy and show it to me?”
“I can bring it home with me today after work, and we can review it at my house. Where will you be?” Jim asked.
“I’ll be waiting right here, pick me up tonight.”
“You’re going to wait here for seven hours?”
“No, I have to get some more medication from my ship; I’ll be back here then.”
Jim decided not to ask about his “ship”, he’s had to absorb too much weird information for one day. Getting in his car, a thought entered his head, not from Jarvick though, from his own thoughts. How am I going to explain this to Sylvia?
Rick Sorenson reluctantly agreed to let Jim borrow the video disc to review it, but stipulated that it was not to leave the facility. It has an RFID implant built into it and D.C. would have his head if it did. This presented a problem for Jim, if he walked through the scanner with it on his person, alarms would go off and alert the Security Chief. He would have to tell Jarvick this afternoon when he went to pick him up.