Hiram shook his head. “Wow.”
Nuthros nodded, “Indeed. The whole thing was a complete mess. Unfortunately, or fortunately, however you want to see it, that planet failed to develop properly, in the end. Subsequently, Brantok was able to keep the whole thing secret until I met Kestil in that system where he showed me his accursed warship. To this day, we don’t know why Kestil is so advanced. A mating of one of us with a native of a primitive world should have presented no issues, genetically. However, Kestil is hyper-intelligent, and we don’t know why.”
“The real concern about Kestil is that hyper-intelligence is only a short step away from complete madness,” Brantok added.
“So,” Hiram said, “We have a potential madman who wants to rule the universe.”
“Indeed,” Nuthros said. “We also have nothing to stop him but a passive society with no experience of, or equipment for, war.” He patted Hiram on the back. “I’d better get back to my ship. I shall return for the council meeting tomorrow.”
*****
Baxter checked his watch; 6am on the dot. He re-assembled his cleaned sidearm with a dexterity born of practice and slipped it into its holster. He had a hand on the doorknob when his cell-phone rang. He pulled it out of his jacket pocket. “Baxter.”
“Sir, its Nathaniel Sharp here. You need to meet me at Chain Bridge right away, sir.”
“Chain Bridge? What the hell do I need to meet you there for, Sharp?”
There was a momentary silence. “It’s Agent Parkhurst, sir. He’s dead.”
Almost an hour later, Baxter pulled his car up by a uniform officer just short of Chain Bridge. Barriers were up and the bridge was closed in both directions. Baxter showed his badge and was waved through. He parked at the start of the bridge and walked out to a point where a section of the guard rails had been smashed away. Agent Sharp ran up from the opposite side.
“I’ve talked to forensics, sir. It seems Agent Parkhurst lost control of his car about 5am this morning and went over the side here.”
Baxter took a look over the edge. Parkhurst’s car lay upside down on the rocks below, half submerged in the Potomac River. He traced the skid marks back from the shattered rails to a spot on the road where they started. He pointed to the skid marks. “For him to lock up the wheels like that, and still have the momentum to smash through the rails, he must have been flying. Also, the left side wheel locked up here. See how the right side wheel doesn’t lock up until there? Ask the forensic guys to check the left front wheel for damage that shouldn’t be there.”
Sharp ran off for the other side of the bridge and Baxter leaned against the rail, looking at the half submerged wreck. He lit a cigarette and watched Sharp with one of the forensic team inspect the wheel. A recovery team arrived and started to position their vehicle. Baxter was nearly finished his second cigarette when Sharp puffed back to his side.
“It’s really weird, sir. The entire hub assembly is fused together. It would’ve taken an immense amount of heat. The forensic guys say they can’t explain it.”
Baxter cursed and threw his cigarette butt into the river. “I can.”
*****
David and Christine stood together at the viewport on Nuthros’ ship. The view of Earth was a seductive drawcard for all the human refugees on board the spacecraft.
Chris leant against David’s shoulder. “You talk to your Mom and Dad again lately?”
“Yeah,” David replied. “They aren’t taking it too bad. Mom is real edgy for some reason I can’t fathom. She says I won’t come back, and that Nuthros shouldn’t have ‘taken’ me. She talks about him like she knows him. I can’t work her out at all.”
Nuthros gave a polite cough from behind them. “Excuse me, David. I couldn’t help but overhear you talk about your mother just now. I feel I should explain myself. I believe you ought to know.”
David turned to Nuthros. “Explain what?”
“Well, why your mother is behaving as she is.”
David walked over to a nearby bench. “I have a nasty feeling I should sit down.”
Christine and Nuthros joined him. Nuthros sat and gazed at the floor for a while before he spoke. “As you know, David, I have micro-drones that observe the Earth. I watch people that Truly predicts will be pivotal to Earth’s affairs in a way that I might need to influence to avoid catastrophe.”
“Truly predicts?” Christine asked. “You mean she’s psychic, or something?”
“No,” Nuthros replied, “Not psychic, but able to predict outcomes based on foreknowledge that her incredible intellect gives her. She extrapolates possible future events based on her data.”
“And then you fiddle with things if they’re not going the way you want them to go,” Christine said.
David gripped her arm. “Chris, come on, Nuthros is trying to save mankind, not rule it. Just because you don’t like the idea, that doesn’t make it wrong.”
Chris kept silent, but Nuthros could feel her ire; he knew she didn’t approve of his interference.
“Many years ago,” Nuthros continued, “I monitored a clandestine meeting between a prominent US government official and a Chinese businessman in a park outside Washington. The meeting wound up, and I was about to reassign the micro-drone when I heard a woman crying from a park bench close by. There was a man there with her.”
Nuthros shuffled his feet. “I couldn’t help myself, I repositioned the drone and listened in. I got Truly to run a background on the pair. They were a married couple, who had tried to have a baby for many years. The husband was sterile; he’d served in the military in Vietnam and was a victim of chemical contamination. They had just discovered that the wife was physically unable to bear a child as well.” Nuthros shook his head and whispered, “I knew I should have left them alone. But, our society is based on the practice of unselfish regard for others, and I felt compelled to help. I completely disregarded proper protocol and portaled down to introduce myself. For some reason, Truly allowed this, though she has never explained why.”
He laughed at the memory. “The husband thought it was a prank, and nearly hit me. The wife, however, believed me. She was desperate, and desperate people are ready to believe more than most. I met up with them again that night, at their house. I brought the woman up here, and Truly agreed to rectify her womb, which was malformed at birth. We also impregnated her using a synthetic sperm, constructed with the husband’s DNA, which I obtained from him.”
David started to feel a chill; he thought he knew where this was going. Nuthros continued, “I promised them that all was well, but that I must never see them again.”
He smiled. “I did check in on them again, though. Just the once. When the woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy.”
David stared at Nuthros. “Me?”
“Yes, David, you.”
The three of them sat together in silence. David stared at the Earth for a very long time. Christine didn’t know what to think. She found Nuthros’ interference in Earth’s affairs repugnant, but he had given David’s parents a gift beyond compare. If Nuthros had stayed out of it, as she thought he should, David would never have existed. That wasn’t an eventuality she wished to contemplate.
13
Ronald Baxter sat and read the news on his phone in the Department’s reception area. The media reported Harold Parkhurst’s death as an automobile accident, which was to be expected. He slipped the phone into his pocket when he saw Director Douglas Fellowes approach. Baxter stood and shook the director’s hand.
“Agent Baxter,” Fellowes said, “A pleasure to meet you, although I wish it was under more pleasant circumstances.”
“Thank you, sir,” Baxter responded, “I couldn’t agree more.” Fellowes ushered Ron Baxter into his office. Baxter was surprised to see another man in the office, who looked vaguely familiar.
“Agent Ronald Baxter,” Fellowes said, “I’d like you to meet Michael Cromby, Director of National Intelligence.”
Baxter tried to remai
n cool, but alarm bells rang in his mind. He shook the outstretched hand. “It’s an honour, sir.”
Cromby wore a relaxed smile. “Pleasure to meet you, Agent Baxter, I am very sorry to hear about your boss.”
“Thank you, sir. Harold Parkhurst was a good man.”
“Indeed he was,” Cromby replied. “Tell me, Agent Baxter, why did you notify Douglas here that you believe the alien Nuthros murdered your supervisor?”
Cromby’s face was impassive, but the alarm bells were still loud and clear. Baxter hesitated.
Cromby leaned forward. “Don’t be concerned, Ron, we are well aware of this alien and his machinations; we’d just like to make sure we have all the pieces in the right place, that’s all.”
Baxter frowned. “I thought we now know there is more than one alien, sir.”
Cromby laughed. “I’m sure he would like us to believe there’s more than one, but a half-hour TV show doesn’t count for much in my book. We have no other evidence of a second alien, and until we do, we aren’t buying that particular pitch.”
“So we don’t have the group from that bar scene in custody?”
Cromby’s posture stiffened. “Neither our department, nor any other, has anyone in custody in relation to Nuthros, or any other alien, for that matter. Now, what did you see that caused you to think it was Nuthros that killed Agent Parkhurst?”
Baxter’s heart pounded. Cromby was a good liar, but not good enough. “Well, sir, the front left hub of Agent Parkhurst’s car was melted completely. It was fused together in a way that would require massive heat to be applied to that one spot, while it was on the move. I can think of no way to do that using our technology. I also think Agent Parkhurst was either in pursuit or was pursued himself. He would have needed significant speed to end up where he did.”
Cromby nodded. “Good work, Ron; very good work. I have to agree, if this Nuthros character is happy to assassinate a president, he will kill anyone else who gets too close without so much as a blink of the eye. Now, do you know what Parkhurst was doing there at that time of the morning?”
“No sir,” Baxter replied. “He told me the night before that he was going to see some ‘higher ups’, and I assumed he meant Director Fellowes.”
Fellowes shook his head. “He never came to see me.”
Uh oh, Baxter thought, all of a sudden two plus two equals five. He shrugged. “I really don’t know, then, sir. That’s the last I saw or heard of him.”
“Well,” Cromby said, “I guess we just push on, for now.” He leaned forward. “Tell me, Ron, what do you think our next move should be?”
Baxter’s mind raced. “Well, sir, I think we need to keep an open mind. There is still the possibility of another alien, and that makes things doubly dangerous. I would like to follow up on Agent Parkhurst’s murder, sir. I might be able to get a lead on where he was last night.”
Cromby and Fellowes shared a look. “Okay, Ron,” Fellowes said, “You chase that up, and we’ll take your comments on board. You’ll hear from us real soon.”
Baxter stood and shook both men’s hands, then took his leave. The office door shut behind the field agent and Cromby’s amiable smile vanished. “Pretty sharp, that one.”
“Indeed,” Fellowes replied.
Cromby got to his feet. “Pity.”
“Yes,” Fellowes said, “It sure is.”
*****
Baxter turned a third corner, and watched his mirror intently. Sure enough, the brown car followed. They’d done two switches so far, but he knew the drill only too well. He took a left at the next corner and increased his speed. The brown car drove past the intersection. Another car, this one blue, pulled out of a laneway as he passed. He took the next right, and cursed the unfamiliar road as it headed out into the open. A short stretch of field lay either side of the road, before a heavy tree line of forest hid everything from view. That’s not good, he thought.
Less than a minute later, there was a bang and the steering wheel spun viciously to the right. The car swerved onto the verge before he could do anything to avoid it. Baxter slammed on the brakes and suddenly found himself sitting in the middle of the field next to the road. Here we go again, he thought.
He turned around just in time to see his car roll onto its roof before it was ripped apart by an explosion. He jumped up and sprinted for the tree-line without a backwards glance. Behind him he heard the blue car screech to a stop. Bullets flew past him and he leapt into a depression just inside the trees. He flicked his head up and back down, to take a quick line-up. Baxter waited three seconds and then jerked upright. He fired off a round and dived back down. He grinned in triumph as he heard a loud curse followed by a groan. The ground changed under him and he realized he had been moved again. A quick look around revealed he was now on the opposite side of the road. He stood up and shot the second guy, who was now on the wrong side of the car and looking the wrong way.
He approached the car cautiously, gun raised. He had no idea whether the first guy was seriously hit or not. Both men lay on the ground, and neither moved. They could easily be playing possum, he thought, that’s what he would do. There was a sharp sound right behind him. He spun round and came face to face with the wrong end of a 9mm automatic. A man in faded fatigues cocked the pistol and laughed. “Boy,” he said, “You’re a hard man to kill.”
Baxter swung his own weapon up and the man fired. Baxter now found himself somewhere else entirely. He stood with his gun pointed out some kind of very clear window at the Earth. There was a polite cough from behind him. He spun round and the alien he knew as Nuthros stood there with a puzzled smile on his face. Baxter held the gun steady on the alien’s forehead. I must be getting used to this, he thought, it hardly freaks me out at all any more.
“Please, I mean you no harm,” Nuthros said. “I have no idea why you are here, but you are among friends.”
A woman’s gentle voice came from all around him. “Please relax, Agent Baxter. Your weapon will not function on this ship. I shall explain what I can once your heart rate and adrenaline levels return to a moderate level.”
Baxter lowered his sidearm and took a look around him. A young couple stared at him, and next to them was a woman he recognized from the TV; Summers, was it? He didn’t know the guy with her, but none of them seemed to present a threat. He holstered the automatic. “It would appear, Mr Nuthros,” he said, “That I owe you my life; several times over.”
Nuthros frowned. “I’m sorry, Mr Baxter, but I have no idea what you mean.”
“No, you don’t, Nuthros,” said the woman’s voice. “But I do.”
*****
“Robert Markham here.”
David breathed a sigh of relief, he’d hoped his Dad would answer. “Hey, Dad, it’s just me.”
“Hi son. How’s space treating you?”
“Oh fine, just fine. How’s Mom?”
“She’s okay, under the circumstances. What’s the latest up there?”
“Well, Chris and I are learning all about Nuthros’ society. It’s just incredible.” David trailed off. He hesitated. “Nuthros told me, Dad.”
Robert Markham stayed silent for a minute. “Yeah, I figured he would. I’m sorry we never told you.”
David laughed. “I’m not surprised you didn’t, Dad. If you guys had told me I was born because of an alien, I might well have had you both committed.”
Robert laughed, too. “I guess that’s why we didn’t.” David could hear his Dad’s voice tremble a bit. “It’s a decision we’ve never regretted, David. You’ve made us proud and brought joy into our world your whole life.”
“Thanks, Dad. I’m glad I’ve made you happy.”
“You could never make us unhappy, son.”
“Listen, Dad. You remember the computer on Nuthros’ ship?”
“Truly? Of course I do.”
“Well, she told me that I’m up here for a reason, but she won’t tell me why. I wanted you to know I may not come back, even if Kestil is deal
t with.”
Robert sighed. “I know that, David. I’ve always known we’d lose you, really. I’ve waited for Nuthros to come for you since the day you were born. I’m just grateful we had you with us for as long as we did.”
David did a double take. “You’ve always known? How? I mean, I don’t understand.”
David heard his dad take a deep breath. “David, when you first went to school, we were called in to the school after just two weeks. Oh sure, as soon as you were a bit older your grades went down enough to make you look like you were a bit bright and no more. But, in the first grade, your teachers were convinced you were a savant. Hell, you memorized the entire Declaration of Independence at one reading when you were just six, remember?”
David recalled that trip to Washington DC with perfect clarity. The looks on his parent’s faces as he recited the entire thing back to them in the park at lunchtime…
“I don’t know who you thought you had fooled with your normality act, son, but let me tell you this. When I served overseas, I fought in the jungle against shadows. Every village was a potential death trap, every villager a possible killer. The only way we survived was to learn how to tell a fake from the genuine article, and fast. I always knew you threw your exams, son. I saw how much you wanted to fit in. You had your Mom suckered, but not your old man.”
David had always assumed nobody knew how much he pretended to be dumber than he was. “I didn’t want to be the loner, Dad. I never wanted to be the nerd that everyone hazed. I still made sure I got into Harvard on a scholarship, though. I didn’t want you and Mom to pay for my education.”
“I know, son, I know. Tell me something, though. You really think it’s a coincidence you were born via alien technology, and then just happened to be a genius?”
The Sixteen Galaxies Page 14