Here comes the sun…
She sighed. “I’m going to see the sun again. And shade.”
“Yup.”
She sang the last line with him, then smiled. He watched her step from the shower to dry her hair. He took care of himself. By the time he entered the greater room she’d put on the cream colored negligee and fallen asleep. She likely hadn’t noticed the sack on the table. He’d seen the clothing already, three dresses, another skirt and two shirts. They were put together roughly, but had a homespun charm to them. The Aleena didn’t have needles and thread, but they had a sort of adhesive that proved far superior. The music player Testa found for her, with more memory than he’d ever seen a portable carry, was tucked inside the bag. Her ear filters would act as speakers. They’d been unable to find shoes for her, but Hermione had promised to bring something she could use, along with an untraceable identification card.
Sam just hoped Jake’s cabin hadn’t been invaded by squatters. The Shakes had left a great many vacation homes vacant and unclaimed. The area around Cape Hatterass had grown less populated as the ocean levels rose. Not so much from direct ocean intrusion, but storms saw tidal surges reach much further inland as the decades passed. A bad economy and bankrupt insurance industry meant no money to rebuild. Jake loved his family cabin and had the attitude that when a storm took it, then he’d give it up.
It rose on a small bluff and the last time Sam checked on it, the walls still stood firm. He’d stocked it and tried to convince his sisters to bring their families for a nice long visit. By the time they’d prepared, the borders were closed and not long after they were dead.
Merry and Rosie would approve of his actions. He only hoped he’d get a chance to punch Hammer himself.
*****
Hermione collected the items Sam had requested, setting up a distraction to enable her slipping away. The last week she’d felt eyes on her but hadn’t been able to figure out where her watcher lurked. Out of concern, she entrusted the evidence her old teacher had given her with Drum. His secret underground shelter would provide the best security for the information.
She still had her job but an indefinite suspension without pay signaled they expected her to resign. Damned if she would. Let them fire her.
It took the better part of an entire day to shake her tail. She borrowed a car from a contact she’d made after following Terry’s leads, switching cars again in Raleigh and slowly drove back roads toward the coast. She parked up the road from the meeting place, taking the backpack with her. Anxious to see Sam, she tried not to hurry. Now she’d find out if he was crazy or being forced along this path. Or if aliens really had abducted him.
The bar and grill sign had three burned out letters. S ile ’s Pl ce. She remembered it from five years earlier, when she’d met Sam’s sisters. The parking lot held three cars. He’d probably walked, it only being a mile from the cabin. She wiped the sudden sweat from her face, wicked humidity pulled it straight from the pores. Her shirt already stuck to her back.
Opening the door, she stepped inside to feel a faint bit of cooler air hitting her, along with the smell of frying hamburger meat, and hot French fries. She remembered those fries. Her belly rumbled. Glancing around she saw him, sitting across from a smaller figure, bent over something on the table between them. She hoped it would be a big basket of fries.
She ordered herself a large coke at the counter, gratefully took it and downed several swallows, waiting for Sam to signal her. A sharp nod of his head saw her wander over to look down at his company. It was their phantom author. There were two empty old fashioned milk shake glasses in front of her while she worked on a third, a look of pure bliss on her face. Her mass of hair was gone, cut to a shoulder length, probably by someone who didn’t know what they were doing. But the idea was a good one.
She pulled up a chair and sat down, reaching over to snag a handful of fries from in front of Sam.
“She talking now?”
“When she isn’t sucking up the best of Smiley’s ice cream. Been a while since she’s had any.”
A long mmm mmm came from the woman and Hermione had to laugh. “Well, if they are as good as the fries, I don’t blame her.”
“That what I asked you to get?” Sam eyed the backpack, slipped down between them.
“Yeah. Sam, your hair.” She’d never seen the man looking so disheveled. Thick strands fell past his shoulders.
“I know, but since any photos of me have it cut short, this will serve to help me hide. Luckily, Jake left a stash of bills so I could keep Ria in milkshakes until you got here.”
A platter was set down on the table. Three hamburgers and another large basket of fries.
“Sam, I love you.” She reached for one of the burgers and dug in with gusto. She’d been too nervous to eat and hadn’t had anything since a pastry at her normal cafe. So, now their escaped captive had a name. Ria. She’d thought it nothing more than the author’s initials when Sam mentioned her online.
Ria finished her shake and studied the remaining burger, Sam having snatched the other. She daintily picked it up, closed her eyes, lifted it to her face and did nothing but inhale for nearly a minute.
“What is she doing?” Hermione swallowed her fifth bite and wiped her face.
“Savoring the experience. Not a lot of hamburgers where she’s been.” Sam chuckled.
Hermione left off studying the woman and looked at her boss. He smiled crookedly, admiring Ria as she finally took a bite of the burger.
“Good?”
“Oh. My. God.” Ria mumbled before taking another bite.
“Monty?”
“Yeah, I know. Let’s finish and you come back with us. T’talin is waiting. I wanted a beer but didn’t want to risk my facilities. I need to stay sharp. Have you heard from Dancer?”
“I know he’s safe. I’m pretty sure he’s heading back. His family is settled.”
“I don’t like Jermaine being involved, H.”
“I know, neither do I. If it’s any consolation, he’s so far from anything sensitive he was bitching to his dad about bailing on the internship.” She attacked the fries, finding herself looking curiously at what Ria wore. Seams gaped and the fabric twisted oddly. Her hair, released from the weight of its former length, coiled with loose curls. Suddenly, she glanced up and met Hermione’s eyes.
“What?”
“The curls look good on you.”
“Oh. Thank you. Are you really in love with Sam?”
Well, she could talk and evidently believed in being direct. “No, it’s just an expression. I hadn’t eaten all day.”
“Me, neither.” She set the fry down that she’d bitten in half. “I feel really full now.” She burped. “Oh, better. Can I have another milkshake?”
“I don’t think you should. Let the food settle and maybe we’ll grab you an ice cream bar on the way out. Okay?”
“Sure. I’m going to go look at the juke box. That is a juke box, right?” She nodded toward the brightly colored old fashioned bar item.
“Yeah, but it probably doesn’t take coins. You find something you like go ask Smiley for a token.”
She nodded and stood. Pausing, she held out a hand to Hermione. “I’m Ria. Thank you for helping…me. It’s been so long since I’ve been around humans. I should have introduced myself. I apologize.”
“No, I’ve had Smiley’s milkshakes, I totally understand.” Taking the woman’s hand, she squeezed it slightly, then released it. As Ria walked over to the juke, she noted the lack of shoes. “She walked over here without shoes?”
“No. But they were tight so she took them off once we got here. They belonged to my sister but are too small for Ria. Tell me where Hammer is.” Sam leaned forward and she bent to share what she knew, which didn’t amount to much. “My source says he’s preparing to oversee the testing of a new type of sonar off the coast. I don’t know where particularly, it’s very hush-hush. He’s in Norfolk, I hope. He recently flew to and back from a
marine research lab he runs in Maine. Celeste Pritchard has a home in Maine and I believe she is a trustworthy ally. You might consider heading that way, Sam. What sort of transportation do you have?”
He grinned at her. “Jake left his electric bike in the shed. I hooked up the battery, it’s charged. He loved that bike. It has solar skin and will continually repower itself.”
“An electric bike? That going to be enough, even with the solar hook up?” She imagined the two of them on a 50cc bike. That wouldn’t work.
“This is one of the old MotoGP bikes, H. He raced professionally, remember? Yeah, it will be perfect. All Ria has to do is hold on. I’m just glad it’s summer.” He glanced at the plates of food, all but empty. “She is the author, H. They repaired the damage from the fall, took them years. Her memory is compromised. And emotionally? She’s been living with aliens for fifteen years and they aren’t like us. Much more analytical and emotional outbursts are considered a sign of illness. She’s struggling with all of it.”
“Aliens.” She frowned. “Monty.”
“I know, come on. Let’s head for Jake’s. I promised T’talin he’d make the midnight tide. Where did you park?”
“In front of the liquor store.”
“You good to leave it there? The road to the cabin has gotten worse.” He waited for her reply before standing. She stared a moment at his baggy shorts, then shrugged and got to her feet.
He called Ria back to his side as he pointed to a pair of shoes sitting on the bench next to him. She grimaced, but slipped them on. At the counter he grabbed three ice cream bars, handed them each one and they left the bar. The humidity hit them all over again. Ria stood, staring up into the sky. There were few streetlights in the little town, with more than half of them not working.
She tilted her head, holding one hand up to block the light from Smiley’s sign. “I can almost make out the Big Dipper.”
“You’ll be able to see it from the cabin. Come on.” He led the way. Hermione knew the man had eyes that could see the path, so she simply followed. She heard Ria at her back, appreciating the ice cream bar, soft murmurs rose behind her.
T’talin wandered through the cabin, a bit discomforted by the quiet. If he shifted his auditory perception, he could hear insects and the soft lapping of water down at the ramshackle dock. But he missed the deep thrumming of his ship and the high pitched communication squeaks and squawks of the Aleena.
He studied a picture on the mantel. The male looked like Agent Montgomery. At each side stood a woman. He had arms around their shoulders. One looked up at him with a smile while the other grinned at the camera. Other photos included the women with children and two other men. He assumed they were family.
Examining the photo carefully, he noted similarities between the three adults and thought they were siblings. He hoped, for Ria’s sake, that Sam Montgomery had no mate. From what he’d read of human interactions, sharing a male wasn’t common. The thought of his ship without the humans caused him to frown, but he wanted what was best for N’sila. Montgomery brought her a sense of connection she’d been missing. Milaar had spoken to him about the changes in the woman. They viewed them as positive.
Humans didn’t belong in the ocean and he knew this. But their presence had sparked such a sense of life and because of Ria, they had reached past more than a century of passive existence to take an active part in the life of this planet. He hoped the more settled Aleena in the caverns would accept the things he’d done. Not to mention those he planned.
Even if they didn’t, the information they’d uncovered of Alfred Hammer the Third and how he, and a handful of other powerful people, had led human society to the brink of disaster, would be released. T’talin felt pride in his people and all they’d accomplished in the last few weeks. He had no doubt that given a chance, they could save this planet and its inhabitants. All of them.
He took a seat, pulling a book from a shelf and began to read. He’d promised to wait for Sam’s return and he would. The scout ship floated, safe from human eyes, at the end of the dock.
As she entered the dark cabin, Hermione wanted to jump at every shadow, worried at what waited. What if nothing were here? She’d have to find a way to talk Sam into finding psychiatric help. As impossible as the thought of underwater aliens seemed, she preferred that to Sam being crazy.
“T’talin?” Sam softly called out.
“I am here, reading.”
“In the dark?”
“It isn’t dark for me.”
Great. Someone with a sense of humor. But he didn’t sound alien. Wait, what did an alien sound like?
Sam struck a match and lit a kerosene lantern. As it flared to life, she saw a figure standing near the mantel. He moved forward and Hermione took a breath. This was just a man. Her hand slid back to her holster, only to find Sam had anticipated her move. “Just wait. Trust me.”
She let her hand drop.
Ria rushed forward to embrace the figure. “Don’t abandon me, please. Can’t you leave me with a scout until you get back?”
He pushed her away, but with tenderness, and looked into her face. “No. It wouldn’t be safe for the scout or for you. He’ll know what to look for. I trust Sam. You can do this. You are strong and brave.”
“I don’t feel strong and brave.” Ria sighed, still radiating uncertainty, and slid onto a chair, to the side of this T’talin.
He held a hand out to her. “I assume you’re Agent Montgomery’s associate. I believe it is customary to shake hands?”
She reached out and clasped his hand, then the odd texture of the hand registered. “I’m Agent Hermione Bales.” She restrained herself from jerking her arm back. Instead, she raised their joined hands to her face and looked carefully. A shadow moved beneath the skin, a hint of sinews and odd colored veins.
Her face rose and she saw him watching her as closely.
Sam stood at her side. “Show her, T’talin. Just enough to convince her.”
Show her what?
That face softened, as if the skin slumped. Eye sockets widened and the iris shifted from round to that of a manta ray she’d once seen in an aquarium. The lips thinned and ears receded as the nose sank to a bare bump.
She blinked and dropped his…its…hand.
“T’talin is a gifted mimic, but it’s mostly a visual thing. He still moves too smooth for a two legged walk and if agitated the segments of his body that make up the limbs are obvious. What you feel under his fingers are tendrils, or small tentacles if you like.” Sam put a hand at her back. “You going to be okay?”
“The first creatures they saw were cephalopods and the form was close enough to their natural form, they adapted it.” Ria leaned forward and rested her head on his…its…thigh.
“It is important that you believe I am what I say I am. Do you need more proof?” T’talin asked her directly.
She nodded, not entirely convinced she wasn’t simply hallucinating in the poor light. He pulled the loose shirt he was wearing off and handed it to Ria. “Save this for yourself.”
He dropped the pants he was wearing and she took a step backward as two thighs merged into a single limb with multiple tentacles below that. She’s seen a pouch where genitals would be for a human but it disappeared under shifting skin. She felt faint. Sam eased her back to a chair. T’talin turned his back on her and she watched a ridge of smaller tentacles rise from his spine.
“You believe me now?” Sam squatted to meet her eyes.
She swallowed, then blinked several times. With a nod, she agreed. This was an alien.
“Where did you come from?”
“A planet very far away. We were part of a fleet, seeking a new home. Our ship was old and we drifted too close to your moon. The gravity caught us and we managed to land with enough damage to see us marooned in the Atlantic Ocean. We sank and survived. The rest of the fleet continued on, considering us lost. We’ve been here over two centuries.”
“Damn it, Sam. He’s an ali
en life form.”
“What was your first clue?” Sam chuckled.
Ria stood and with a deep sigh touched T’talin’s arm. Arm? “I’ll walk you to the scout.”
“Thank you. Agent Hermione Bales, I entrust to you and Agent Montgomery the care of this woman, Ria. She is special. Guard her well.” He nodded and moved toward the back of the cabin. Ria walked with him.
Hermione took a deep breath and met Sam’s eyes. “Got something to drink?”
He smiled. “It’s really very exciting.”
“Yeah, it is. I have so many questions, I just don’t know where to begin. Why is he leaving?”
“Needs to get his ship to a safe place. This sonar tool Hammer wants to test must be the device he’s threatening them with. Let’s look through the stuff you brought. I have some gold and silver I’d like you to convert into funds and deposit in the credit line you established for Ria. What name is on the ID?”
“Sam, get me a drink.”
“Oh, sure. I think Jake left some scotch.”
“That would be good.” She picked up the backpack and began to pull stuff from it. She set a small purse aside and waited for her drink. “She is Rita Ash. You are William Ash. Figured making you man and wife would be easiest.”
Aliens. Real aliens. Drum would be so jealous!
Ria watched T’talin slip into the water and sighed. A tear ran down her face and for a few minutes she allowed herself to just feel the upwelling of being abandoned. At least it felt real. And human. She looked up at the sky and found the Big Dipper. Such a big cosmos and she was so very, very small. Her momentary panic in the cabin disturbed her. She trusted Sam, but the immensity of finding herself again on land overwhelmed her.
Finally, she wrapped arms around herself and turned back to the cabin. Inside, she found Sam and Agent Hermione discussing the next step. She stood listening for a moment before interrupting. “If T’talin has enough information to bury him, why not release it immediately and be done with all of this?”
Essentially Human Page 12