“I saw them all speaking into these things, so they must be communications links.”
She watched as he poked at the screen and a variety of movements happened. “Bio?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Chit-Chit-ta said. He continued tapping the screen. “It’s an information data system that appears to be comprehensive. It’ll take a while to understand how to operate it, especially since I don’t know their language.”
“You know they’re watching us.” She reached her hands to cover her stomach. “It’s going to grow fast. I’m scared. We have to get out of here and harbor in a safe place.”
“After I set the signal,” he said.
“No. We are all who are here. Even if we get hold of them, we have to allow this new life to grow.”
“You’re being protective. I understand,” he said.
“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do—protect me? We must get out of here. They could easily kill us. Look how many of them there are.” Kek-ta felt pressured, frightened, as though suddenly the world they emerged into was more dangerous than either of them could have understood.
Chit-Chit-ta cuddled with her while looking around them. “They’re moving in,” he said. “Perhaps you’re right.” He continued to poke at the tool as they stood close. At one point sound emerged from the device, flowing and rhythmic. “Harmonic combinations,” he said. He poked the tool and the sound stopped.
“They’re getting closer,” she said into his ear.
“I know. When I say so, we climb that plant and leap into the darkest area opposite where we were before.”
She waited. As the aliens rushed them, Kek-ta and Chit-Chit-ta leaped onto the thick trunk of a plant and scurried out of range. Chit-Chit-ta grabbed the equipment, but it was quickly knocked from his hands. She saw him hesitate to go back for the latest tool, but then rushed after her for their escape.
He took the lead and into moments they were deep within the darkness. They hid for a moment, then Chit-Chit-ta flicked his ears and she followed him away.
CHAPTER 9
NEIL WATCHED AS MAVRA SCOOPED LEAVES onto a pile into a large, round nest. Would that make her feel safe enough and at peace enough to do her work? The soldiers continued to stir things up, rushing around like excited farm animals. The aliens were on the loose again, and there was a long night ahead of them. “You comfy?” When he tried to gather more leaves to help her, she motioned for him to stop and to stay away. He settled a few yards east of her and leaned against an alder tree as he scanned the canopy toward the stars. The sky was brighter than it had been earlier, but he couldn’t see the moon. Knowing it was there was enough.
Mavra handed her phone to Neil before she settled into her castle of leaves and reclined slightly. In the center of the pile she crossed her legs and closed her eyes.
Neil wished he knew what she envisioned when she went into her meditation or trance, or whatever it was, wherever it was. She had called it many things over the years. He wavered between believing and non-believing when it came to her psychic abilities, but it wasn’t a function of his mind as some might have thought. It was his general orientation toward wanting to verify things personally: robots traveling through time, for example. If he couldn’t see it for himself, it was hard for him to believe. That wasn’t the case for Mavra. She tended to believe more in the things she couldn’t see than the things she could see. How must that have affected the rest of her life?
After a while, Neil used Mavra’s phone to enter his computer code so that he could get access to his language software. Since their phones were linked, he was able to upload the audio recording he had made earlier into the language input port of his computer. He turned his phone off and slipped it into his shirt pocket. The computer would do the rest, and he could easily access it later.
He slid down the trunk of the tree, sitting with his knees up and parted so that he could see Mavra. The moon edged its way across the sky. The dim light brought out the smoothness of his wife’s features while obscuring the details in shadow. She looked beautiful in the half-light, motionless, calm, and somehow going places he couldn’t go. A marvelous woman, as mysterious as her abilities.
In a few minutes, Mavra opened her eyes slowly. She twisted her neck from side to side, loosening the stiffness that must have entered while she was motionless.
Neil heard someone rushing toward them, and a man appeared out of the darkness from the direction of the camp. “Sir? Ma’am?”
Neil breathed in the earthy smell that Mavra had stirred up while making her nest. It was a calming odor. “Over here.” Neil stood and stepped away from the tree where more light shown through.
The young soldier wore loose-fitting fatigues. His small flashlight scanned the area, nervously flashing from Neil to Mavra and back. “She okay?” he asked when the light landed on Mavra a second time. She had closed her eyes again, probably to avoid the soldier’s direct attention. His face wrinkled with curiosity and concern.
“She’s fine. Do you need something?”
“Yes, sir. The General wants to know what you found out.”
“I’m just getting started,” Mavra said without moving.
“He said you’ve had plenty of time,” the soldier said.
“Tell him to come here and say that to my face,” she said.
“Sorry ma’am, I didn’t…” He never finished his sentence.
Neil took a deep breath. “She needs peace and quiet to do this. You let Harkins know that he’ll get the information as soon as we do. So far, there have been regular interruptions. If that continues, he might as well search on his own.”
“I’ll let him know, sir,” the man said before he turned to go back to camp.
“Thank you,” Mavra said.
“They need to learn a little patience,” Neil said. “So? Anything?”
“They want to go home.”
“Wherever that is,” he said.
“Their home is our planet at the moment. I’m not saying that they’re originally from Earth, but this is where they were born. For now, this is home for them.”
“Back to the development,” Neil said. “Of course, they’ll need more equipment and what better place to get it. Familiar, too.”
“At night, like this, they’ll sound like burglars. They may get caught by suspicious neighbors.”
“I’m surprised they haven’t been seen and photographed already. People don’t notice anything anymore, I guess. Well, that might change if they’re heading back to the development. People don’t like being woken up in the middle of the night. They don’t like their family time interrupted.”
Mavra got up from her nest and brushed off her pants. “Should we tell them?”
Neil reached for her hand and pulled her toward the edge of the woods. “Eventually. After we’ve had a head start.”
“They’re not going to like this,” she said.
“Would you rather have a dozen men with machine guns and nets going with us?”
“No, but I wish we had some of that night vision equipment.”
“Trust me, there’ll be plenty of light in the development. People are afraid of the dark.”
It didn’t take very long for the two of them to be back in the development and wandering down the sidewalk. “Where to?” Neil asked.
“It’s not like that,” Mavra said. “I can’t turn this off and on like a faucet. I’m not getting anything right now. I’m tired.”
Neil swung around and let her lean into his arms. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how this works. I mean, I know about the Tarot cards and the candles and all that at home, but I’ve never gone with you on a job. How do the police handle this?”
She smiled up at him. “Pretty much like you do. I have to continually remind them that this is as strange and mysterious to me as it is to them and that they have to learn to let it flow…just like I do.”
Neil cocked his head and brought it back straight. “I can do that.” He brushed hair fr
om her face and leaned in to kiss her.
“I know you can,” she said. “Can we just stroll and look around?”
“Sure. But you lead. That way, if you get a nudge one way or the other, we can go with it. I’m sure your intuition is better than mine.” He held his hands up as though she was about to reject his idea. “Just a thought.” He tried to show his confidence in her and hoped that she accepted it.
The moon crested over a few of the houses, and their stroll through the development turned to a pleasant evening walk. The air had cooled some twenty degrees since the last time they were there, and Mavra crossed her arms to keep warm. Neil put his arm around her while they walked. He kept his eyes roaming the area for the slightest movement. He pricked his ears for the slightest sound, but typically heard television sets rambling on inside the houses. A few times some small, yappy dog sounded as though it was rushing the front door of a house they passed. Sight seemed like the best way to find the aliens. “You know,” he said in a quiet tone, “they could be hunkered down somewhere. After all, that capture attempt could have really scared them. Maybe they’re hiding.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Mavra put a hand on his chest and stopped walking. He knew not to ask her what she sensed, not to interrupt her. “That’s it,” she said. “Just as you said that, I saw them in a corner.”
“There are a lot of corners they could be in,” he said.
“Near a chimney?”
“On the ground or on a roof?” he asked in a natural tone so that it didn’t sound like he was grilling her.
“Ground…for now.” Just then they heard another dog bark and a man yell for it to come back.
“Clean up in aisle three,” Neil said. He let go of Mavra and jogged toward the noise.
An older man bent over and a brown dog rushed toward him. “What was it, boy? Did you chase it away? Did you scare that squirrel?” He roughed the dog’s ears and clipped a leash to its collar.
Neil slowed. Mavra had paced him and stood next to him now. He scanned the rooftops for a chimney and saw a flash of movement. It could have been a squirrel, but he kept his eyes on the spot. And it was near a chimney.
As the man passed them on his way toward his front door, Neil and Mavra said, “Good evening.”
“Hope he didn’t bother you,” the man said.
“No. We like dogs,” Mavra said.
After the man reentered his house, Neil said, “Found them.”
“Great. Now what do we do? We can’t park ourselves on the sidewalk all night. I think the neighbors would get suspicious.”
“And we can’t climb up there or the damned things will run away.” Neil ran through several ideas. Not one of them included Harkins and his men. He sighed. “I don’t know. We have to tell Harkins eventually. He’s sure to find out we’re not in the woods any longer.”
“I’m surprised he hasn’t already,” she said.
Neil pulled out Mavra’s phone. “Let me try something,” he said. He opened the language program to see how far it had gotten. Eighty-some percent it looked like on the graph. He opened a file and glanced down the list of phonetic sounds and suggested meanings. “Bwobe,” he said.
“Excuse me?”
“Bwobe. The program suggests that it’s a greeting.
“How does it do that?”
“Intonation, repetition, frequency, all sorts of things. It’s really meant to adjust to dialects, but it’s also been used for movies when a language has to be created and understood. Ever see, The Outer Planets? The writer and director came up with a language based on guttural sounds and beeps.” He laughed to himself. “Weird, I know, but the developers tested that language and several other made-up languages against this program to be sure the program worked.” He bowed his head slightly. “Bwobe.”
“You’re going to yell that up to them? From here?”
“Didn’t think of that. Shit.”
“I’m going to knock on their door and let them know we think our escaped monkey is on their roof.” Mavra moved down the sidewalk toward the house they stood in front of.
Neil waited, his eyes fixed on the chimney where he observed movement every once in a while. It had to be the aliens. He was sure of it.
When Mavra returned she said it was okay with them as long as they could show the monkeys to their children. “I said we would if we caught them. The man also said that a neighbor’s antenna was ripped from his house and wondered if a monkey might do that. I told him, not likely.”
Neil let his left eye scan the house, and a little kid had pulled back the blinds and looked out at them. “He’s going to be disappointed when we don’t comply.”
“Do your thing,” she said.
Neil brought his hands to his mouth and cupped them to force the sound forward. “Bwobe.” Then he bowed slightly. He tried to make the sound indicate a greeting, a first meeting of species so to speak. Nothing happened. He tried again. This time, one of the aliens stepped around the chimney. It stood upright, one hand stretched out and holding to the brick of the chimney. It stood for a moment as though waiting for Neil to say something else. But he didn’t. He merely repeated the greeting.
The alien turned its head as though talking with the other one who still hid behind the chimney. “Bwobe natta buk,” it said.
“Did you hear that?” Neil said. “Was that three words or two?” He sorted the program’s phonetic list alphabetically and scanned for nattabuk. He didn’t find the sound, but he did find nottabek, which was close enough. Maybe he heard it wrong. He cupped his hands next to his mouth and said, “Nottabek.”
“Natt-ahh-buk,” the alien said loudly. Then it waved its hand toward Neil like he was dismissing him as stupid and stepped back behind the chimney.
“What the fuck?” Neil yelled up. “You don’t speak my language, either.”
“Don’t yell at them,” Mavra said.
“Well, it doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere at the moment. They probably think we’re just a couple of idiots.” He scanned the list of sounds on his phone again. “It’s still working on that recording, but we don’t have a lot to go on. And they appear to have stopped talking as much. What do we do?”
“Text Harkins,” she said.
Neil sent Harkins a quick text about where they were, but it was too late. Just as he pushed SEND, he saw soldiers walking toward them. “They must have noticed,” he said.
Mavra turned around and approached the soldiers. Neil kept one eye on the aliens and another on Mavra. “It’s about time,” she said. “I thought you’d be faster than that.”
“Ma’am?” one of the men said.
“We texted the General a while ago.”
“It must not have gone through, ma’am. He didn’t say he got one.”
“Damn developments,” she said. “Well, you’re here now. Is Harkins coming?”
“Behind us, with the Lieutenant and his crew.”
Neil recognized James’ voice. Six of the soldiers approached Neil and asked where the aliens were hiding. Neil pointed toward the chimney. “But this family is going to know something’s up now, with you guys here.” He pointed. The little kid’s eyes went wide and he let the blind fall to the window. In a few moments, the boy’s father stepped outside and let the screen door slam. The aliens jumped. One of them peered around the chimney, but didn’t appear too concerned about the increased number of people standing on the sidewalk.
“I see him,” one of the soldiers said.
The man from the house tentatively approached the group. He addressed Neil. “What’s really going on? Are we in any danger?” He looked grim and sounded scared.
A master sergeant stepped forward and said, “You’re in no danger and neither is your family. This is fairly routine.”
“Did those monkeys escape from some lab? I heard rumors that something’s going on at the college. They’re not carrying some kind of disease are they? I don’t trust the college to do all the research they d
o, you know.” His confidence had picked up but, unfortunately, so had his mouth. He nervously filled the empty air space leaving very little room for anyone else to speak. “And a few kids from the neighborhood said they found some kind of egg. The police said it was nothing, but now you show up and it makes it all seem like lies. You’ve got to tell me what’s going on. I have kids in there.” He pointed at the house behind him.
“Enough,” Neil said. “You’re scaring them, and we don’t need to lose them again.”
“The monkeys?” the man asked.
“Yeah,” Neil said to him. “Monkeys. And they don’t have any strange disease or any unwanted habits or violent nature. We just have to keep an eye on them so they don’t go running off again. Honestly, sir, the school isn’t involved in any disease prevention programs or anything. We’re from the archaeology department, not the chemical department.”
“As long as you’re sure.”
Neil winked at him. “We’re positive. Now please…”
The man looked up and down the street. “I’m surprised no one else is out here,” he said.
“Maybe they’re afraid of the military,” the master sergeant said.
The man shook his head. “They’re just oblivious.” Then he swung around and walked back into his house.
“What are we going to do now?” Mavra asked.
“Surround the house,” the sergeant said. “We’re going to capture those things tonight. We have to. If anyone gets a glimpse of those two things, the word will be out that we have aliens in our midst. We don’t need that.”
“But they’re the only two,” Mavra said. “And they’ve done nothing wrong.”
“No one will believe that. Would you? After the government has kept things like this from the public for so long, who would believe it this time? Besides, we don’t know what to expect from them either. All that technology they had back there. Maybe they do carry diseases we don’t know about. Enough observing.” The sergeant gave specific orders to his men, and they dispatched with nets and guns. “It’s time to get hold of them and start a testing routine. Find out what’s really going on here.”
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