"I don't think I'm equipped to speculate well how a cat might feel."
"Well, slip into a cat suit sometime and I'll haul you around in a cage until you can, Elkor. That's not a joke, either. It might give you a unique perspective."
"I'll consider your suggestion, Ed."
About halfway to the station Elkor reported that Clark's team had taken over the situation at my house and that Linda, being the closest ranking member of the organization, was on her way to the station.
When I got there I asked if the guys had any hope of being bailed out. Greer told me that wasn't very likely under circumstances, then asked me why I was asking about their bail.
I said, "I was kind of hoping they'd drop by the house again sometime."
Ellen's gaze narrowed a bit at that statement. I ignored her look and suggested that we go home.
In the car I said, "Linda, the 'blending with the natives' idea just expired, I think. Relocating Ellen won't make the bad guys forget about my house, so I'd like to have some countermeasures installed. How did they come to the conclusion that there were aliens living at my address? What made them sure enough to plant bombs?"
"We're already looking into those questions, Ed. Get with Elkor about countermeasures. He says he can mount sensors and stunners all around the house, inside and out, and send you a field generator to install in the attic that will deflect anything short of a howitzer shell."
"Something for the car would be nice, too."
Elkor said, "That will be no problem."
"How soon could we pick up the equipment?"
"I'm working on the generators now. They should be ready by midnight."
"Gary can pick them up while we keep an eye on things. How big would a field generator be if it were tailored to protect an individual, Elkor? Bulletproof, rad-proof, gas proof, everything else-proof?"
"The smallest generator I can make would probably fit in your small backpack, but it would weigh over one hundred and fifty pounds. I could extend a field from a drone, but it would stop only radiation or gas with certainty, not bullets or shrapnel."
"So we're back to staying alert when we're in public. Okay. Thanks, Elkor."
Gary let us out and left immediately for the ship. The two deputies that had been left to watch the house seemed surprised to hear we were going to stay in the house that night.
I let them remain surprised and told them that I might be out now and then during the night and that Gary would be returning later.
I gave Ellen the .357 and told her to make sure she wasn't aiming at me. She didn't see the humor of my remark. When I took the .22 revolver out of the ammo box for myself, I held it near the PDA and told Elkor to let Linda have a look.
Linda's voice came through the PDA speaker.
"Is that the same gun you had in Africa?"
"It is."
"Damn, Ed. You never get rid of anything, do you?"
"As long as it works, why should I?"
"Because it's a goddamned mouse gun, that's why."
"We've had this discussion before."
"And it's still a goddamned mouse gun, Ed. Why don't you have another .357 or a shotgun or something?"
I held up a little red box for the PDA camera.
"Run the specs on this ammo for her, Elkor. Show her the sales brochures. These beat the hell out of the old hollowpoints, Linda, and the old hollowpoints got me through Africa and more well enough."
Linda said, "One of these days you're going to run into something that mouse gun and luck won't handle, Ed. What then?"
"Then don't send flowers and come prepared. You'll be my executrix, and you'll get to referee while all my relatives fight over the goodies."
"If you had goodies to fight over I'd know about them. Just watch your six."
Ellen looked confused. "Watch what?"
"Your six o'clock," said Linda. "Your behind. Your ass. Look it up. Bye, all."
Chapter Twenty
A few aspects of security arrangements for the entire program were changed and beefed up after the bomb attempt. Three other similar attempts were made around the country during the following week. None succeeded and there were many arrests, but nobody was stupid enough to think the crisis had passed.
A great deal of the ship had been dismantled and removed to the factory site by the end of the project's seventh month. The same local weatherman who had originally estimated the ship's diameter at one mile had begun using a series of 'before and after' pictures to enhance his portion of the news hour.
I happened to be watching the evening that he declared the latest diameter to be less than a quarter-mile and wondered aloud how much more might be removed. The sports reporter, who had apparently read some of the news desk's non-sports-related missives, instantly upstaged him.
"They're saying that there will be less than ten percent of the original ship out there when they're done, Tom. Only the core - the propulsion unit - will remain."
Both of the newsies had to try to conceal their displeasure as the sports guy pretended to politely inform his colleague while on the air.
Tom gave him a tight smile and thanked him very tersely. The other two anchor people pretended to be busy with their papers. The sports reporter then ran through the scores from wherever and the show moved on.
The following evening the sports reporter was listed as having taken a few days off for family reasons and one of the women reporters normally seen reporting from county fairs and doing fluff-stories handled the sports segment.
Gary showed up for our Saturday afternoon cookout with a woman named Lyssa whom I'd met twice in passing at meetings. She wasn't an Amaran, and somehow that surprised me. What surprised me more was Alanah showing up an hour later with a new date of her own, Daniel, who was introduced to me as being from Maryland, not Amara. Everybody seemed to get along just fine.
When Ellen came over to watch me start up the grill, I asked what had happened to break up Gary's thing with Alanah. Ellen looked mildly surprised and said that she'd thought I'd known that it hadn't been that kind of 'thing'.
"Well, they spent enough time together, Ellen. It sure looked like that kind of thing, or the beginnings of it."
"It wasn't. They're just friends, Ed."
I looked at Alanah, who was lounging by the pool in a swimsuit. Maybe it was just her position, but it seemed to me she was getting a bit of a belly. Too much Earth cooking? Daniel came over to her and seemed very solicitous. Nope. Not cooking. Alanah was in early preggers, betcha.
In the slight reflection of the glass-topped table I thought I saw Ellen make a slight face of displeasure, but when I looked at her, her expression was one of wry patience with my roving attention.
"Don't even think about it, Earthie. You're with me."
Ellen was wearing a swimsuit, too. I looked her up and down leeringly and said, "Yas'm, Miz Alien Lady. I'm definitely with you."
"I'll bring you a gin and bitter lemon on the way back from the kitchen, then. Don't strain your eyes in the meantime."
"No, ma'am," I said as she left. "I'll keep my staring at other gorgeous alien women to a minimum. Seen one, seen 'em all, anyway, right?"
She turned and made a face at me briefly.
But a thought had crossed my mind. Not whether I could nail Alanah. Not even whether Gary had nailed Alanah. It had suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't seen or heard of any of the Amarans pairing up with each other, either.
Put any three hundred people together for close to a year. Some of them will form relationships. Unless, apparently, they were Amarans. Or unless I just wasn't aware of those who had gotten together, which was entirely possible.
When Linda arrived I told her I had a topic for our next visit to the beach. She arched an eyebrow at me.
"I was unaware you'd broken up with Ellen, Ed."
"Behave, Linda. The anniversary of the ship's arrival is coming up soon. I was thinking there maybe ought to be a big party. Anyone suggested it yet?"
> "Not that I'm aware of," said Linda. "And I would be aware of it."
"It might be interesting to get everybody involved in the project together."
"You, of all people, are suggesting a party? You hate parties."
"Just the kind you used to drag me to, Linda. Bureaucrats and stuffed shirts having cocktails with their sycophants. I'm talking about something more like this cookout, with everybody bringing their spouses or a date. Their kids, too. Something for the whole family. Outdoors in a park, maybe. What do you think?"
After a moment, she said, "I think it would be a logistical nightmare to get everybody to and from the party. Let's talk about it next beach day."
'Beach day' was what we called our weekly visit to the bit of Florida gulf coast where we'd met the ranger. I'd made a suggestion that was so totally out of character that it would chew on her until she could figure out what I was up to.
Linda went to get us another couple of drinks. When she returned she put my drink on the table and looked at me oddly for a moment, then left me to show Gary how to cook on an open grill.
Ellen came over and asked, "What was that about?"
I grinned. "I suggested a project anniversary party. I don't think Linda knew I could count all the way up to three hundred and sixty-five."
Ellen giggled. "She probably thought Gary or I put you up to it."
I grinned at her and said, "She definitely wondered where it came from."
"What did she say about it?"
"She thinks the logistics would be nearly impossible. Everybody's too spread out, too busy, or possibly even not interested enough."
Ellen nodded and asked, "And what do you think?"
"I think she knows what would be involved better than I would, Ellen. I only see my little chunk of things."
Ellen nodded again just as the grill flared up. It was only some burning grease, but it startled the hell out of Gary. He was missing some arm hair, but was otherwise fine, so I left him to it and went inside to check Bear.
Bear was sitting in the window watching the show in the back yard. I watched his eyes track someone across the patio until they reached me. He regarded me for a moment and said, "Yahh."
It wasn't the instant, shining, 'hi, there!' greeting he usually gave me. It was a flat, brief monotone of sound. I walked over and rubbed his chin.
"Sorry, Bear. They won't be staying, though. In a few hours it will be just you, Ellen, and me again. Can you hang on that long?"
Bear sat up on the window ledge and looked out as he said, "Yahh."
He sounded resigned to his fate of enduring the crowd in his home.
Gary and Alanah and their dates stayed to help clean up, then left after some wind-down conversation. When I returned to stretch out on the couch after seeing them out, Bear climbed up on my chest and sat there like the Sphinx.
Ellen sat on the sofa chair and seemed lost in thought as she stared at him while he stared at me.
"Something on your mind, Ellen?"
Her eyes snapped to mine and she said, "No, not really."
I patted Bear a few times and asked, "Should I accept that answer or keep trying to get you to tell me what's bugging you? It's up to you."
Ellen's eyes remained locked on mine for a few moments, then she stood up and went to the kitchen. When she came back, she had a drink for each of us.
"One drink lasted you all afternoon, Ellen. What's this one for?"
More hesitation. I sipped my drink and waited. She finally spoke.
"Ed, how many Amarans have you met?"
I thought a moment. "Personally? Nine, I think. Indirectly? Maybe fifty."
"How many were men?"
"I think maybe a dozen."
Ellen sipped her drink and sat down.
"Then you've met about half of the men who came here with us. There were thirty men on the ship, not counting those who will return with the core."
I looked at her for some moments as that ratio soaked in.
"Only thirty men and two hundred and seventy women? Are you serious?"
She nodded and took another sip. With a wry grin she said, "It sounds like one of those 'Amazons from Space' porn films already, doesn't it? But it's true."
She had to have had a reason for finally telling me something like that after so many months together, so I waited for more.
"You hate parties, ignore holidays, and can't stand being around children, Ed, yet you just came up with the idea of a project-personnel anniversary party. Gary and Alanah and I tried to figure out the why of it and came up with only one really reasonable explanation for your suggesting such a thing."
I didn't say anything. I just patted Bear and nodded for her to continue.
"You were surprised when I told you that Gary and Alanah hadn't been involved as more than friends. Would that make more sense to you if I told you they were like brother and sister? Closer than that, actually. It's the same with me, Ed, except that this... defect... has made Gary more protective of some of us. All of the Amarans who will be remaining on Earth are from the same genetic matrix. We aren't exactly clones of each other, but we're far too similar for purposes of procreation."
"That fits. Does Linda know about this, too?" I tapped my watch. "Hey, you! Are you listening? If so, say something."
"I knew about it," said Linda. "Don't bang on the watch, please."
"Is there some reason you've waited to tell me about it?"
"Did you need to know? Did it have anything to do with protecting Ellen or building factories?"
"Oh, good points, ma'am. 'Need to know'. I always hated that term. How would knowing something like this have hindered me, Linda?"
"It wasn't my decision to keep this information a secret, but since you asked, Ed, why do you think the ratio of women was so high?"
"A bonus to the men who okayed the whole deal? No, just kidding. I wasn't one of those guys and I've got an Amaran guest. Gimme a minute."
I looked at Ellen and considered the matter.
"They're the only ones who can show us how to build our factories and our products, so they're already indispensable to the project. They can't go back to Amara and the only Amaran men on Earth are genetically incompatible, so if they want families they'll have to hook up with Earthies. That seems to leave us with two hundred and seventy women who look great, love sex, and were conditioned to get their biggest jollies when a man comes in them."
Linda said, "Right so far, except maybe about the jollies thing, you lech."
Ellen softly said, "He's right about that, too, Linda."
Linda was silent for a moment, then she said, "I don't like that part one damned bit, but it does make sense when added to everything else."
I continued, "Conditioning like that wouldn't be for recreational purposes, Linda. These women were intended to reproduce as often as possible. I'd bet that birth control pills or anything else that interfered with their hormonal harmony would make them just about deathly ill. If you could get one of them to violate conditioning in order to take birth control pills, that is."
Linda asked, "What about that, Ellen? Yes or no?"
In a softer voice than before, Ellen said, "Yes."
"Oh, god-damn," said Linda. "I don't want to hear anymore right now. I'll listen to the rest of this later, when my stomach is working right again."
I asked, "Are you out of shape, Linda? You used to be able to order people into things knowing full well what might happen to them."
"Those people knew what could happen when they signed on, Ed. You signed on with us knowing what could happen if the East Germans caught you. We didn't manufacture you for the job and give you no choice in the matter."
"Point taken, ma'am. Something else, Linda... Mothers contribute most of the genetic material to offspring, not fathers. The egg contains it all. A man's sperm only activates things and gets the egg rolling, so to speak."
"Where did you hear that?"
"Don't remember. Someplace on the Internet in
a newsgroup."
"Was it gospel or gossip?"
"I'd say gospel. A bunch of know-it-alls were trying to correct or upstage each other on the subject for a week or so. Something about an outfit claiming to be able to DNA-trace a person's maternal lineage to one of the original few Earth-mothers for a fat fee. My final take on it was that there were probably quite a few lines that died out when sons were born or daughters died, and back then death was pretty easy to come by. These guys had to be generalizing big-time and selling to the seriously vain, but everyone seemed to agree that humanity's genes are passed on by women, not by men."
There was no answer for a couple of moments.
"Linda?"
Still no answer.
"Linda, are you there?"
Nothing. I was becoming concerned when she finally answered in flat tones.
"Verified, Ed. Mothers pass on the majority of genetic structure."
"Is this a problem, Linda? Our Amarans were never Amarans. They were destined to become Earth people before they left the drawing board."
I grinned at Ellen and added, "The worst that could happen would be that they'll make lots more good-looking smart people, right? How bad can that be?"
Ellen smiled, then frowned and seemed thoughtful. She asked, "Linda, are you saying you see us as some kind of world-domination ploy?"
Linda said, "Well, hell, lady! What would you call it? Do you have any idea what other kinds of conditioning you were given? Would you know if you carried some special kind of disease to Earth? Something that would wipe us out and leave the place for other Amarans to take over? Why would they bother to tell you?"
Ellen was becoming upset. I moved Bear to the arm of the couch and went to Ellen to put an arm around her.
"Linda," I said, "You're right. They wouldn't tell Ellen or the others a damned thing about it, so ranting at her serves no good purpose. Let her up."
There was no answer for a moment, then Linda said in controlled tones, "Ellen, one more question. What happens to factory seconds on Amara? What happens to the people who can't make the grade? Did they bother to tell you that?"
Ellen was almost in tears. In a small voice she said, "They know which cells will be genetically viable before they're allowed further growth."
3rd World Products, Inc., Book 1 Page 22