From a Distant Star

by McQuestion, Karen

  I went to get Scout’s attention, but before I even got close, I was yanked back by Christy Carversen. “Not so fast,” she said, her voice harsh. She came up behind Scout and ripped the headphones off his head, then stuck the barrel of the gun next to his ear. “Get up. We’re going upstairs now.”

  Scout turned around and, when he saw me, a smile spread across his face. “Emma,” he said, “I have found a way to email Regina.” His voice rang with happiness.

  “Get up now,” Christy said, waving the gun.

  “Scout, this is Ms. Carversen,” I said. She had a wild-eyed look that worried me. “We need to go upstairs now to talk to her.”

  “Hi, Ms. Carversen,” he said, extending his hand.

  “It’s Doctor Carversen,” she said. “How did you get in this room?” Her voice had such a sharp edge that she scared the cat, who leapt off Scout’s lap and ran past us and up the stairs.

  “With a universal key,” Scout said. “There are many possible combinations and one of them worked with this lock.”

  His explanation made me want to slap my forehead. Of course! The box in the back of the van labeled “Universal Kit.” The one that held the weird-looking keys. How did that slip my mind? So stupid of me. I could only guess that he couldn’t sleep, remembered the contents of the box and tried the keys, and then, once he got the door open, went straight to work. I wished Scout had come and gotten me. He had either wanted to let me sleep or thought I would slow him down.

  Even though she’d asked, Christy didn’t seem all that interested in the answer. She said, “I want both of you to walk in front of me. Slowly. When we get upstairs, sit down at the kitchen table. You’re going to be answering some questions.”

  After all of us had trooped upstairs and were seated at the kitchen table, Christy relaxed a bit and actually set the gun down on the table in front of her. “I’ll give you five minutes,” she said, “and I’d better like what I hear.”

  “So you’re not going to call the police?” I asked.

  “No. Yes. Maybe.”

  Scout leaned forward, both hands flat on the table. “She does not want to call the police because she’s afraid they might find out about the satellite dish and the radio signals. And then the people at Erickson Ryder will know about it too. She is only talking to us because she’s worried about what we know.”

  One glance at Christy’s face and I knew he’d picked up on her thoughts. She stuttered, “Erickson Ryder? So you’re with them. Did they send you here?”

  “No, no, no. Not at all,” I protested. “The opposite really. We’ve been trying to get away from them. Believe me, we’re here on our own.”

  A slight smile crossed her face. “Okay, then. You said you needed my help. That it was a matter of life and death. So talk. And make it fast.”

  I took a deep breath, thinking about where to begin. A quick look at Scout showed that he wasn’t going to be any help. His lips were pressed firmly together and his gaze was at Dr. Carversen’s forehead. I said, “We need your help sending a radio signal to the planet Erickson Ryder was able to reach. My friend here—” A jolt of pain hit my calf as Scout kicked me under the table. I bit my lip and sucked in to keep from crying out and he took over in that split second.

  “We are students of astrophysics,” he said with conviction. “And we are taking part in SETI at home.”

  What? I gave him a questioning look, but he was concentrating on her and didn’t see it.

  “SETI at home?” she asked, sounding puzzled.

  “It stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” he said. “We have been assisting the US government in receiving radio frequencies from space and determining if there is an intelligent pattern.”

  My mouth dropped open. Why was he saying this?

  “I know what it stands for.” Christy sounded impatient. “But what does that have to do with you breaking into my house?”

  He went on. “I’ve picked up data that shows you’ve made contact and that the alien spacecraft will be landing nearby sometime tonight. It will happen in a clearing that you gave them coordinates for.” His eyes flicked from me to the gun on the table in front of Christy. A message. “We are here because we want to witness this. You will need to take us to the landing area.”

  “You’re talking crazy,” Christy said, her eyes narrowing. “I don’t know where you got this so-called information. Alien spacecraft?” She leaned back and laughed theatrically. “That’s rich.”

  “Our sources are reliable,” Scout said. “The information is good.”

  Christy shook her head. “We’ve all had a good laugh, but I’m done placating you. You kids need to get your van out of my garage and toodle on home. You’re lucky I don’t call the authorities on you.”

  Scout gave me a subtle nod of his head, and I grabbed the gun, aiming it right at Christy.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” she said, holding up her hands and pushing her chair back. “What the hell is this?”

  “Don’t move,” I said, not sure how to answer the question. My eyes darted to Scout, who calmly stood up.

  “We need to leave right away,” he said. “How far is it to the landing area?”

  “Is that a real gun?” she asked, her voice quavering.

  “Of course it’s real,” I said. “And when you release the safety catch, it even shoots.” I made a show of doing just that. I turned to Scout. “What’s the plan?”

  “Christy Carversen walked here tonight from the landing site, so it cannot be far. She forgot something and came back to get it.” His forehead furrowed as he spoke; he was listening to her thoughts. “A camera. She and her brother want to blow up this ship like they did the other one and she wants to record it. Her brother is Woodcarver on the message forum.”

  I said, “No kidding?”

  Scout said, “No, I am not kidding.” His tone was so serious I almost laughed. He continued. “She was fired from Erickson Ryder for stealing company secrets about the radio signals. Erickson Ryder wanted to be the ones to make the first contact because it would make them famous for history. But she and her brother shot the ship down.”

  “Where are you getting this?” Christy asked. “Who have you been talking to?” Her eyes flashed with anger.

  Scout looked around. “We will need flashlights to see and we need to hurry. They arranged this meeting with the ship some days ago and it will happen tonight.”

  “That’s it, I’m calling the police,” Christy said, but I still had the gun aimed at her and she didn’t move, not even an inch, so I knew it was an idle threat.

  “Why do we need flashlights?” I asked. “Can’t we drive there?”

  Scout shook his head. “It is deep in the woods and there are no roads. Christy and her brother own all the property for miles around. They inherited it from their grandparents.”

  I asked, “But why would your people send another ship if the first one was blown up?” After the last fiasco, I would have thought they’d avoid our planet altogether.

  “They are coming back to get me,” Scout said, a thin smile stretching across his face.

  I had a million questions then, but the words never got a chance to leave my mouth because at that moment, Christy rushed at me and slammed me in the face with her fist, knocking me against the wall. The back of my head hit the wall so hard I saw an entire constellation. Off balance, I slid to the floor, the gun still in my hand. It happened so fast I didn’t have time to react. I was on the floor, dazed and in pain, and could only watch as she wrenched open the back door and ran outside.

  “Hey!” I yelled weakly. “Get back here or I’ll shoot!” My empty threat trailed her as she fled through the back door.

  I staggered to my feet, intending to go after her, but Scout held out his arm to stop me. “We need to follow her,” I said, waving an arm in her direction, frantic we might lose the trail.

  “Not to worry, Emma. She showed me in her thoughts where i
t is. I know the way.”

  “But what if she calls the police?” I sputtered. “Or gets her brother and they come after us?”

  Scout shook his head. “She knows there is no time. The ship will be here soon.” He tipped his head to one side and placed a hand on my sore cheek, flinching at exactly the same time I did, feeling my pain. “Nothing is broken,” he said. “I am sorry I did not stop her. I only knew she was going to do that as she did it. She is not a person who thinks things through.”

  I nodded and then suddenly remembered: “There are flashlights in the van.”

  A few minutes later, we were out the back door, lights shining ahead of us. I’d grabbed my backpack and stuck the gun, safety on, in the front zippered compartment. Without the guts to use it, it was just a chunk of metal, but who knew? It still might come in handy. Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

  Scout led the way, past the enormous satellite dish and through the open gate, which Christy had left ajar. She had a few minutes on us, but she couldn’t be too far ahead. The moonlight was blocked by the canopy of tree branches overhead, so we had to rely on the flashlights to see the way. I found myself walking carefully, not wanting to trip over any roots or branches, unable to focus on anything but the next step.

  “I don’t understand,” I said, going right behind Scout, my fingers pinching the back of his shirt. “A ship is just going to appear to pick you up? How did this happen?”

  “I was able to send a message to Regina. She told me they have been able to retrieve information from the ship that exploded and so they knew one of the pods had ejected to safety. She suspected it might be me. They have been looking.”

  “How did they retrieve the information if the ship exploded?”

  “You know about an airplane’s black box?”

  “Yes.”

  “This is like that. But it’s not black.” He exhaled loudly. “And it’s not a box either.”

  Deeper and deeper into the woods we went, pushing branches aside, stepping over roots and logs. I still had questions. “How are they getting here so fast?”

  “Christy Carversen set it up some time ago. She told them she had something left over from the crash and arranged a meeting. They thought it would be me, but really she did not have anything. It was just a trick.”

  “Not much of a trick,” I muttered.

  “She and her brother want to blow up this ship too. They have missile launchers that sit on a person’s shoulder. He was going to destroy the ship and she was going to film it.”

  “But why go to all that trouble? For what reason?”

  “There is not a good reason. They have just decided that those from other planets are the enemy.” I heard the shrug in his voice. “Like you said, some people here are mentally ill, or just evil.”

  Before I could ask my next question, Scout had already anticipated it. “Do not worry, Emma. My people will be prepared this time. No harm will come to them.”

  We continued on, deeper into the woods. In another lifetime, a dark summer night like this was made for Lucas and me. Because of his mother, we cherished our time alone and really made those minutes count: holding hands on the porch, sneaking out to the barn, kissing under the stars. But if those memories felt like a dream, this night, this walk in the dark, was my nightmare come to life. The swing of the flashlight beams turned the tree limbs into monster arms reaching for us, and the clammy night air made my T-shirt stick to my back. Around us, unidentifiable rustling noises worried me. Worse still was the knot in my stomach, the nagging feeling that we were walking into a trap. Ahead of me, Scout moved faster and faster, spurred on by the promise of Regina and home.

  Scout must have sensed the dread I was feeling because he stopped and said, “It’s okay, Emma. It will all be fine.”

  “How can you be so sure?” My hand tightened around his arm, the bicep nearly as strong now as Lucas’s once was.

  “Because Regina was not mad, not at all,” he said, as if that explained everything. “Remember how you said if she loved me she would never give up on me? I did not believe it, but you were right, Emma. She did not give up. She was happy to hear from me. She told me that I was smart to eject and that it was resourceful of me to find a host. And Regina said if I had died she would never have taken another match. She said she would have been alone until the end of her days.”

  “That’s real nice, Scout, but that Christy woman is a complete wacko and her brother has a missile launcher. Has it occurred to you that they might attack us? They might be here right now, hiding behind those trees, ready to jump us.” I pointed to a thicket just to the right of where we stood.

  He stuck the flashlight under his arm and put a hand on either side of my face. “I would feel them if they were nearby. Really, Emma, it is going to be fine. Regina said they are coming and they will take me home.”

  “Okay, well, how is this going to work? I mean you’ll go out of Lucas, but how exactly? Will they have another pod for you or something?” I thought about his original pod, still locked up in the van.

  “I will not need a pod to go home. Regina said they have it all worked out.”

  I wiped my forehead and sighed. “And how is it that you were able to email Regina?”

  “It wasn’t really email, Emma,” he said, shaking his head at my foolishness. “That’s just what I called it so you would have a point of reference. Our communication was done by manipulating radio waves. Primitive, but effective.” He took my hand. “Come on, we’ll walk together. Soon you will have Lucas back and I will be going home and everything will be fine.”

  There didn’t seem to be a path as far as I could tell, but Scout moved as surely as if he’d grown up in these woods. He had a firm grip on my hand and I let myself be pulled along, even though I felt sure we were heading to our doom. We’d probably only been walking for fifteen or twenty minutes, but it felt much longer.

  “Are we getting close?” I asked and Scout said, “Yes.”

  Stupid me, I thought, asking the guy who came from another galaxy if a clearing in the north woods of Wisconsin is close. Relatively speaking, to him, everything on Earth was close.

  A few minutes later, we sloshed through a small creek. We heard the rush of water before we saw it. It trickled in a shallow bed so narrow a person could lay across the width of it and touch each bank. I flashed my light over the creek and nodded as Scout indicated we needed to be on the other side.

  “The landing place is just ahead,” Scout said, steadying me as we crossed. Our shoes became soaked, but there was no time to think about it, because after we made our way through it, Scout broke into a jog. As excited as he was to get there, I felt just the opposite. He still had my hand, but I wasn’t in step with him anymore. In fact, I lagged behind, trying to be the voice of reason.

  “Let’s scope out the situation first,” I whispered. For all his time on Earth, all the movies viewed, articles read, and thoughts and feelings he’d taken on, he still seemed innocent, like a child who knew bad things happened, but didn’t seem to think they could happen to him. I knew that his intellect surpassed anything on Earth, but sometimes, frankly, he just seemed dumb.

  I pulled him back to explain my plan—that we could hide in the woods just beyond the clearing and see if Christy and her brother were there, then wait to determine if they had weapons. I wasn’t sure what we’d do then, but knowledge is power and I figured staying hidden would give us an advantage. I had only just started explaining this to Scout when I was interrupted by a rhythmic noise that came from above us. I tipped my head to listen as the faint sound became louder and louder, finally becoming deafening. I’d know that sound anywhere. The chopping noise of the blades of a helicopter. The air stirred as it passed overhead. And then, after that, there came another helicopter, and then another. Three enormous helicopters flying above us.

  “Come on,” Scout yelled, pulling on my arm. “Something is happening.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY
-SEVEN

  Scout released my arm and broke into a run. I hurried after him, my backpack banging against my hip, branches whipping across my face. I didn’t even watch to see where I was going. I just followed the spike of his light waving ahead of us. The helicopters were loud, and as the noise got more intense, I knew they were landing somewhere just ahead of us. My current level of exhaustion made it hard to sort through all the thoughts running through my head. Were Christy and her brother expecting helicopters? Scout hadn’t mentioned it, and he rarely missed anything.

  “Wait,” I called out, but Scout wasn’t waiting for me or anyone else.

  When the clearing was in sight, he stopped so quickly that I slammed into his back. A space the size of a baseball diamond had been scraped bare, the edges rimmed with the kind of solar lights you buy at a gardening store. There was no sign of Christy or her brother, but we saw the first helicopter land on the far side. The noise echoed across the field while the blades stirred up a cloud of dust. The chopper was nothing like the news helicopters I’d seen around town. This one had a body almost as long as a school bus and a shape that screamed “military.” As we watched, the doors to the helicopter opened and eight people in camouflage carrying automatic weapons jumped out. While the blades wound down, a man and a woman in civilian clothes exited right behind them, the man holding his hand out for the woman, who pushed it aside and got out of the helicopter without assistance. I caught a glimpse of her face when she jumped to the ground. I would have known her anywhere. Federal Agent Mariah Wilson. Which meant the guy next to her was her crony, Agent Todd Goodman.