My Cousin, the Alien

by Pamela F. Service

  Ethan’s scream was short and terrified. Its echoes died, and the quarry settled into silence. Deathly silence.

  I don’t know how I got down there. I was too scared to think. Somehow, I just scrambled down to that lower ledge. Ethan had rolled away from the ruined pine, almost to the rim of the ledge. He was lying very still.

  I crouched over him. He was still breathing, but his pale face was flecked with blood, and his eyes were closed. At least the broken pine branches hid us from below, not that they would do much good against the enemy’s pulverizing gun.

  “Ethan,” I whispered frantically, “wake up! Please. Don’t let them catch you. You can still get away!”

  Nothing. Not a flicker. He lay there pale, bloodied, and still. Like a little dead bird.

  If only I’d believed him, really believed him, earlier. Maybe I could have done more to protect him.

  “Come on, Ethan, wake up. I won’t let them get you! I love you, Ethan. You’re my cousin. It doesn’t matter that you’re an alien. Your mom and dad love you too. You’re family! You belong with us. Please, wake up!”

  I ruffled his hair and patted his face, but nothing changed. Anxiously I looked around. Maybe I could carry him. The ledge we were on stretched to the left, then turned a sharp corner. Maybe . . . I froze.

  On the far side of the quarry something was moving along the cliff face, something with a faint violet light. One of those fat guys climbing a cliff? Still, under all their seeming flub might be alien muscle.

  I flattened myself on the ledge beside Ethan, but soon the figure would be high enough to see us. Could I drag Ethan farther behind the fallen pine? I reached for him and caught sight of the chain around his neck. Quickly I slipped it and the pendant over his head. It glinted like fire in the moonlight. There had to be some way to make this thing work!

  I held it away from me, frantically poking the little knobs. The violet light on the opposite cliff was climbing higher. I looked again at Ethan. It might not be safe to move him, but it wouldn’t be safe much longer leaving him here. I rose to a crouch and grabbed his shoulders.

  Crackling air skimmed over me. Fallen pine branches burst into a rain of needles and sawdust.

  “Time’s up, kid,” the alien’s voice boomed. “Guess you’ll have to stay here dead.”

  I spun around, about to yell back something when another voice called sharply, “Guess again!”

  A beam of blue-white light shot across the quarry into the climbing figure. Something screamed, something not human. Seconds later a charred, twisted shape fell to the dark waters below.

  Stunned, I looked toward the source of the beam. Someone was standing on the rim of the quarry. A slender figure. Rescuers! The police had finally tracked us down. But that weapon. . . what was that?

  The new figure was moving our way. Then it left the rim and began climbing down the rock face. Whoever it was, he was a very good climber. Nervously I looked around. There was still one fat alien left.

  At one end of the quarry, our rescuer reached a ledge and leaped from it to an angled block of stone. Just then, a shaft of wavering air shot across the quarry and smashed into that block. It heaved sideways, and the person clinging to it was thrown backwards. That last shot, I realized, had come from almost underneath us.

  Crawling to the rim of our ledge, I cautiously stuck my head over. The other alien and his violet light were moving below and to my right. Sitting back, I looked to the far end of the quarry. Our rescuer was still there but seemed to be caught in a rock crevice or something. I could see arms flailing.

  And here I was, helplessly watching! Desperate, I grabbed at the pendant again. It’s got to work! I yelled in my mind. It’s supposed to have some power, so let’s see it!

  Clutching the metal disk, I leaned over the rock edge. As if it were a gun, I aimed the disk at the figure silently climbing below me. My mind was yelling orders as I jabbed randomly at the crystal and knobs. That power, I need that power! I’ve got to save our rescuer! I’ve got to save Ethan! I need help!

  I squeezed the pendant so hard my fingers tingled. No, it was the light, the light that made them tingle. My whole hand was glowing with pale blue light!

  My fingertips glowed brighter and brighter, throbbing with pain, burning pain. Then, like glowing needles, the light shot beyond them. It shot down the cliff. The climbing alien shrieked. I couldn’t see beyond the flare of light, but something splashed into the water far below.

  Stunned, I pulled back my hand and stared at it. The glow was gone. So, almost, was the pain. There were no scars, no burns. The pendant hung dully from the chain wrapped around my wrist.

  That’s when I began shaking. Shaking uncontrollably. I’d used an alien weapon. I’d killed an alien. I’d saved my cousin. I’d saved that other person. I was going to be sick!

  Dizzily I rolled over and retched. Again and again, my body convulsed. Nothing much came out, but finally I felt better. Weak and dizzy, but better.

  Minutes passed. I was lying on my back staring vaguely at the stars when a figure came between me and them. Someone helped me sit up.

  “So, you learned to use the power.”

  “Yeah,” I said weakly. “But it’s not my. . . Ethan! Will he be all right?”

  The stranger nodded. “I checked him over. He’s scratched and battered, but he’ll be fine. He’ll wake up soon.”

  I looked at our rescuer and realized I’d seen her before. Somewhere. Yes. The white-haired lady from the Vulcan Wasser Pavilion, the one who’d also been on the boat trip! Her hair might be white, but clearly she wasn’t old or feeble.

  “What. . .how. . .who. . .?” I stuttered, then tried again. “You’re an alien too, aren’t you?”

  She smiled. “Of course. My name is Agent Sorn. And I apologize. We didn’t suspect things were going wrong, or we would have stepped in earlier.”

  I looked at my cousin lying peacefully on the rock. “Are you going to take Ethan away?” I felt heavy waiting for the answer.

  “Your cousin? Why should I take him away?”

  “Well, I mean, if he’s a lost alien prince or something, and the bad guys have found him, won’t you have to hide him somewhere else? Or is it time to go back to his home planet anyway?”

  For a moment she looked puzzled. Then she laughed. A sharp birdlike sound, it finally died into little chuckles. “I see what you must have been thinking. But no, your cousin’s not an alien.”

  “He’s not?”

  “No. You are.”

  After everything that had been happening lately, you’d think nothing could surprise me. But those words sure did. They bounced around my mind but wouldn’t sink in.

  “What was that again?”

  “You are the alien here,” the woman said calmly. “When your parents adopted you, they didn’t realize you weren’t human, of course. Not even most doctors could tell. When we do an Agent Project, we choose representatives from compatible species.”

  More words that weren’t sinking in. But something had. One word jabbed like a chip of ice. “I’m adopted?” That one word, and I felt like my brain had just exploded. My world certainly had.

  “That’s the standard procedure. It’s important that the Agent be raised as if he, she, or it belongs on that planet—raised to be totally part of its culture.”

  I must have looked as stunned and confused as I felt. She stopped and said, “I’m not explaining this very well, am I?”

  Numbly I shook my head.

  “The problem is that I shouldn’t be explaining this at all—not now, anyway. Usually we let Agents fully mature in their adopted cultures before they’re told of their true natures. Ideally, we would have waited until you were in your twenties.”

  I stared at her, still not getting much of this. “Maybe you could start by explaining who this ‘we’ is.”

  “The Galactic Union. When a planet’s civilization becomes advanced enough, it is invited to join. The problem is, many species become very disturb
ed when they first learn they aren’t the most important thing in the universe— that there are thousands of other intelligent species, some of which are very different from themselves. We’ve found that the best way to open contact is to have an Agent on the planet who totally understands the local culture, who can act as an intermediary between the Galactic Union and the natives. So when the time is right, we introduce an Agent, as an infant, into a normal native family and let it mature and learn there.”

  “Oh.” I shook my head, trying to get things to settle. Better go at this piece by piece. “So who are . . . were the fat, bald guys?”

  She frowned. “Unfortunate. They were Gnairt. Gnairt are a piratical species who like to exploit planets before they are ready to join the Galactic Union. They want to keep Earth out longer so they can steal its natural resources and profit from private trading deals. Once they learned the Union had already planted its Agent here, their aim was to find and remove him.”

  “Me.”

  She sighed. “Our fault, really. We had no idea the Gnairt were interested in this planet. It’s rather out of their way. If we’d known there were Gnairt operatives here, we wouldn’t have left you unprotected for so long.”

  Beside me on the ledge, Ethan moaned and shifted slightly. I looked down at him. “So, Ethan’s idea that he’s an alien was just crazy make-believe?”

  “Not crazy, really,” she chuckled. “Wanting to be something special, something different is common enough among any species. But someone like him could never have been our Agent. We choose our Agents carefully and place them with equal care. Your true genetic species has a strong streak of responsibility and protectiveness. And the adoptive parents we found for you are loving and ideally suited to bring out those traits. We need our Agents to grow up happy with themselves, their families, and their lives. Your cousin isn’t like that.”

  “But why did he choose that particular. . . ?“ A memory slammed into me. “Oh. When we were little—the cat. He decided he was an alien after we met that cat. It really did talk and have wings?”

  The woman nodded. “A feline Agent sent to check on you. Unfortunately it was attacked by some sort of native carnivore and inadvertently gave itself away—to your cousin, anyway.”

  Pieces were shakily falling into place. But something still wasn’t right. “Then what about the pendant?” I held it out to her. “Ethan had it since he was a baby, and just now I used it as some kind of weapon. That’s no ordinary piece of junk jewelry.”

  The woman looked it over and shook her head. “But it is. The pendant’s ordinary. It’s you who aren’t. You were the weapon. The power came from you.”

  The truth jolted through me. “You mean when those alien guys were yelling about not having learned to use the power yet, they were really yelling at me? They meant power. . . inside me?”

  “Exactly. That’s another thing we would have taught you when you were old enough. We didn’t think there was any chance of you stumbling upon it accidentally. But kids here on Earth usually don’t face this much stress and danger. That’s what brought it out. You saved all of our lives with that power. But I warn you, don’t even try using it again before you’re properly taught. It can be dangerous to you as well as others.”

  “I can believe that.” The dizziness still hadn’t left me. For a minute, I just stared out at the quarry and its crazy pattern of light and shadow. The pattern of my own life suddenly seemed as crazy. But at least I was beginning to see it.

  I sighed. “So what happens now?”

  “You two return to your families and go about your lives. Forget about being an Agent for a while, just enjoy your life as a human. We’ll start your training earlier than planned, perhaps, but until then you deserve to lead a normal life. Don’t worry, though, we’ll keep much closer watch on things here.”

  The woman stood up. “On the immediate front, let’s get you back to civilization. Your families are going crazy with worry, and several search teams are out.”

  With that, she reached down and scooped Ethan up as if he weighed nothing at all. Then throwing him over her shoulder, she started scrambling up the rock face. I just stood staring.

  Halfway up, she turned and called. “Come on, you can do it. Don’t think about it, just climb.”

  That must have been how I got down to this ledge in the first place. If I’d thought about it, I’d have been too scared.

  All right, I said to myself. Alien powers, if you’re there, get on with it!

  Trying not to think, I just climbed the rock. Somehow finding hand and footholds, I moved steadily upward until we were at the top.

  Tangled, shadowy woods sloped away from us. Crickets chirped and an owl called from a distant tree. The breeze hinted of pine and honeysuckle. Forcing our way through bushes and over fallen logs, we finally reached the old road.

  Gently, the woman laid Ethan down in a nest of gnarled roots. She placed her hands above Ethan’s body and moved them from his head to his feet. I thought I caught a bit of glow coming from her hands. “He’ll wake soon and be fine. I don’t suppose I have to caution you not to tell him or anyone else what I’ve told you?”

  “No. I understand.” As if anyone would believe me. Well, Ethan might. But it could hurt him too—giving up his specialness to someone else.

  I looked at the woman as a foggy idea formed in my head. “Here, could you take this with you? I don’t want to lie about everything.” I handed her Ethan’s pendant.

  She nodded and took a ring off her finger. “An exchange then. Just a bauble I picked up at a space-station gift shop. Powerless, but pretty—and authentic alien.”

  I took the rainbow shifting ring, admiring the colors.

  “I’ve got to go now, Zack,” the woman said. “They’ll find you soon. But don’t worry, we’ll be in touch.”

  She started down the overgrown road, then she turned. “You know, I envy you. This is a good planet to belong to. A good place to call home.”

  Almost before her footsteps had died away, Ethan was stirring at my feet. I crouched beside him, my thoughts tossing about like a sick person. He opened his eyes. I took a deep breath.

  “Hey, Ethan, glad you’re back.”

  He sat up and looked blearily around. “What happened? I was climbing down a tree, and one of those baddies shot at it. But that wasn’t here.”

  “No, another alien carried you out. She explained everything. You were right about lots of stuff. I should have believed you. There are good aliens and bad aliens.” I paused a minute, rummaging through ideas. Then I stumbled ahead.

  “But they weren’t after you, really, they were after. . . your pendant. It’s really powerful. It seems that years ago some aliens crash landed on Earth. They had this important pendant with them, and before some bad guys could track them down, they hid it with a toddler they met in a park. They begged you to protect it. Maybe it was ESP or something, but you did.”

  Ethan’s eyes were wide. My mind kept leaping ahead, interweaving fact and fantasy. “But the bad aliens figured out what had happened to it. That’s why they were after you. After they knocked that tree down, one of the good aliens arrived, a lady with terrific white hair, and blasted them with this really cool ray thing. Then she carried you out here. She said you’d be fine.”

  “And the pendant?” he said fumbling at his neck. “Is it safe?”

  “Yes. She took it. It can go back to its home planet now. But she thanked you for being its guardian all these years. She said how proud they all were of you. And she wanted you to have this.”

  I handed him the ring. In the moonlight, color shifted over it like oil on water. He slipped it on a finger.

  “Wow,” I laughed. “You’ll be the only kid on your block to have a real alien ring!”

  He smiled, then looked at me, smiling even broader. “So I’m not an alien! I was taking care of an alien pendant, but I’m really human. I belong here!”

  His words tore at me, but I nodded. “Yes, Ethan,
and I’m glad. I don’t want my favorite cousin snatched away to some weird alien planet. Your parents would feel the same, too.”

  “My parents! So they really are my parents.” His voice trembled a bit. “You know, Zack, I’ve got to admit, I’m kind of glad. They’re not perfect, but they’re family.” He wrapped me in a quick hug.

  “So, let’s see if we can find them.” I stood up, feeling painfully hollow. Ethan had found his family, but had I lost mine? I thought about my home, about my parents—my adoptive parents, but the only ones I had ever known.

  No, I insisted fiercely. We had all loved my crazy cousin even when he thought he was an alien. And I loved him still. I loved them all. That made them family enough.

  I turned back to where he sat, looking pale and happy in the moonlight. I smiled. “The alien lady said teams are out looking for us. If we head down the road, maybe we’ll meet them. But we’d better keep this alien stuff secret. Who would believe it, anyway?”

  It would take me a while to believe it myself.

  The sky beyond the trees was beginning to gray with dawn, but in the woods it was still dark enough for flashlights. It wasn’t long before we saw some weaving toward us. Beams of yellow-white light. Regular Earth flashlights.

  “Mom, Dad, we’re here!” Ethan yelled, running on ahead.

  I followed more slowly. A new world was still arranging itself in my head. This was like a page in a puzzle book, I thought suddenly. Which cousin is the real alien?

  Laughing, I hurried forward. Neither is, really. We both belong here. True, one of us has a little different background and a different job ahead. But right now, I wanted my family. I wanted to go home.

  about the author

  Pamela F. Service has authored more than 20 books in the science fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction genres. After working as a history museum curator for many years in Indiana, she became the director of a museum in Eureka, California, where she lives with her husband and cats. She is also active in community theater, politics, and beach combing.