by V R Tapscott
His eyes got stormy for a moment, then he said, “Yes. My family thought it best to have me where they could watch over me. My visa was extended to allow me to stay here while convalescing and this is the place I’ve chosen to convalesce in. I know it was presumptuous of me to make the assumption that you would be able to take me in, but I was so afraid I’d miss out on some part of your fascinating life, Jane.”
I smiled. “Well, thanks for the compliment, Cai. But my life is fairly bland.”
He snorted. “Your life, Jane? Bland? “
“Well, it’s only the past couple years that have been like this. I was pretty boring plain Jane before that.”
“I’ve only known you a few months. For me, everything in your life is exciting.”
“Well, to cut a long story short, when I reached for the piece of alien material, apparently it came to life and sucked all the power out of my suit. Since my suit, all of our suits for that matter, are made of living ‘nanobots’ of some sort or other, it simply disintegrated when the power was cut. I’m sure if you looked on the moon in that location you’d find a pile of dust that was really made up of millions of little beasts, like coral, that were mimicking a suit. Once the power was cut, no more suit. Olive says it’s unprecedented, and figures it must be something dreamed up by the AI that lived in the isolation tube, as she calls it. Basically, they were to store the rogue intellects as they were found, and then isolated in the Ship.”
I went on to tell him basically all the information that Olive had imparted to me, ending with the incident of the blown-up mountain and the missing ship parts. And her worries about what was coming at us.
Cai stared off into the distance for a while, silent in his thoughts. I let him be, relaxing in the sun and hearing the sounds of happy tourists around me. Some people don’t like tourists invading the town, but for my part, I love hearing it. Somehow, it’s such a validation of life.
Finally, “What do you think of Olive’s assessment of the situation?”
I sighed. “I’m torn. Honestly, I’m a little worried sometimes because of the stereotypical fear that we humans have of computers taking over. Olive has never shown any interest in any such thing, and Kit never had any interest in it at all. For one thing, being honest, what do humans have to offer that these intelligences could use? They can manufacture anything they want to make, they have no real needs, they have no physical bodies.”
“Except for Olive.”
I nodded slightly, “Yes, except for Olive. But I don’t ever get that vibe from her that she’s got any interest in anything but the ability to be human. It’s odd, isn’t it? Makes us sound a little petty and pathetic that we’re so obsessed in getting away from being human, and she’s working so hard to be human.”
Cai rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “In the end, all other speculation aside, the top of that mountain was removed. It wasn’t anything that a human did. Is the official news calling it a freak eruption or some such?”
“That’s exactly what they’re doing, Cai. They’re saying it was an unexpected eruption from an unlikely source and that they’re watching for further events.”
“And this all came about from the entity in the bit of metal, and the power came from what it got from your suit.”
I nodded.
“Well, from everything I can see from here, I have to agree with Olive. It will have to come back and hit us again, since it’s lack of empathy will carry it toward taking what Olive has. She’s the closest source of power. And it’s unlikely it will have any fear, since fear isn’t legitimately part of its programming. Or at least not anymore. Everything will be weighed against probability of survival.”
We both sat back and watched the people around us playing in the water, completely oblivious to what might be lurking in the mountains of Montana. Or Tibet. Or Washington State. I guess it’s the only thing that keeps us sane is not knowing much information about the world. It makes us feel that we’re safe. And we usually are. I’d be much happier not knowing, really.
So, we napped in the sun, had some wine, a late afternoon snack at Karma Vineyards, and then home. It was almost like not knowing. Almost.
Chapter Nine
Olives and Aliens
The door slid open. Bailey and Georgia stepped out, looking carefully. Neither of them wanted to be grabbed by cops or the like if Olive thought she was being funny again. Come to think of it, where WAS Olive? They looked around and about fainted. There was an alien standing next to them. Tall, bulbous head, big eyes.
“Olive??”
A slightly high-pitched voice replied, “Yup!”
“Oh, what the heck. What are you doing?”
“I thought it was funny. And I fit in perfectly. Look around you…”
They took a look around and now that they weren’t concentrating on the alien with them, they realized the streets were filled with aliens. As bizarre as Olive looked, she fit in better than them!
“So, we’re the only humans here? Are you laughing your head off, Olive?”
“What better place to have fun than in Roswell, New Mexico? I figured we could wander around through all the aliens and see if I know any of them.”
Bailey was making shushing noises at Olive, and pointing at Georgia, who was fairly oblivious to the real alien standing next to them. She was looking all around at the town filled with green, yellow, pink and silver aliens.
Olive rolled her huge bug-eyes at Bailey and shrugged. She hissed, “She’s not paying attention, anyhow. Just look.”
Olive was right, Georgia was captivated by the aliens and Bailey had to admit it was quite the spectacle. Plus, where else would a real alien fit in better than in Roswell during its annual UFO festival?!
So, they started walking. People kept wanting to take pictures of the two cute earth girls in matching shirts and short skirts, accompanied by the tall alien with the amazingly realistic costume. At times it almost seemed real the way the eyes moved. And the arms were perfectly formed and moved just like real arms, only a foot longer than human arms.
They stopped along the way and had ice cream at a booth. Olive talked with an alien at another booth, having an intelligent discussion of how many miles you’d expect to get on a fill up of your spaceship, and what sort of humans it was best to kidnap.
Olive went running up to one pair of particularly tall aliens shouting, “Mom! Dad! Where have you been?” but it fell flat when they refused to play along. Olive was quite incensed when they threatened to call the police if she didn’t leave them alone.
They also thought it was ironic that these people likely met the only alien they were ever going to meet, and turned her away.
They stuck around for night to fall. Then, stuffed with various alien foods, they watched the UFO Festival Light Parade, which had quite a few floats and a lot of lights.
A long sigh from Olive. “This whole trip has been so much fun so far. Let’s find a place and stay here tonight?”
“I doubt if there’s anywhere open at this time.”
Olive pointed across the street at a rather decrepit looking place. “How about there? They’re still open.”
Georgia and Bailey exchanged a glance that said, “Let’s let the kid have her fun.”
Olive knew exactly what the look said and chortled at them. “C’mon then, let’s go see if they have room for us.”
They crossed the street and took the rickety steps up to the office. Once inside it wasn’t any more inspirational than it was outside.
Without raising her head from her computer, the woman at the desk said, “We only got one more room, no more’n two people. No ‘ceptions.”
They all paused a beat, then Georgia said, “We have two people and a pet.”
Olive’s eyes opened wide. She hissed, “I’m not gonna be the pet!”
The woman looked up, her eyes lit on Olive and she said, “Yeah, she ain’t no pet, that’s pert near obvious t’ anyone.”
Olive grinned. “
How about I take my TWO pets in?”
The woman shook her head. “Nah, can’t have more’n one pet.”
Olive stood for a moment, then said, “Well, how about me and my friend, and our human pet.”
The woman shrugged. “Don’t make no nevermind to me what you aliens do, long as you leave me alone. I got onea them aaaductions once an I never wanna do that again.”
She looked Georgia and Bailey over. She pointed at Bailey, “You the pet?”
Bailey looked daggers at Olive but said, “Yep, I’m the pet.”
The woman nodded. “Thought so. That’ll be 195.40, plus th’ extra 48 fer the pet. Y’know, in case it has an accident or somethin.”
From the way that Bailey puffed up, there was worry that she might explode. Olive pulled out her Carbon Fiber card and offered it to the lady, who took it and ran it through the machine. The machine beeped, and the lady jumped like she’d been shot. “Hey, that was declined. Got another one?”
Olive said, “But that’s impossible. It can’t be declined.”
The lady shrugged. “I dunno. Got another card?”
Still looking like she could spit fire, Bailey pulled out her credit card and gave it to the lady, who ran it through. This card went through fine and everyone sighed in relief.
The lady offered a final parting shot, “Now, y’all remember checkout tahm is 11, this office is closed now an I ain’ got no cigarettes. And there ain’ no smokin in the rooms inyhow.”
They all muttered their goodnights and left the office. Their “room” was across the compound. It looked for all the world that someone had pulled a bunch of 1950’s mobile homes in and parked them side by side. You might describe them as staggered, or you might describe the architect of the park as having staggered around placing the trailers, but either way, it was not inspiring. They opened the door and went inside. As soon as they turned on the light, there was a mad scrabbling as the roaches all hid.
Bailey said, “Oh, that’s gross. You need to do something about that, Olive. It was your idea to stay here!”
Olive, feeling put upon, generated a high pitched noise that went up to the stratosphere in pitch, then died out. Just past intolerable you could hear the popping of roaches.
Georgia said, “Oh, that’s even more gross. Now we have dead exploded roaches.”
Olive looked annoyed, “Well, what do you want, roaches crawling on you or ones you can ignore.”
“I’d rather not have either one.”
Olive whined, “I wanna get up in the morning and see what the second day looks like.”
Georgia said, “Oh, whatever. Let’s just go to ...“ Her voice trailed off as they realized there was one double bed. She snickered, “Well, I guess the pet can sleep at the end of the bed.”
Bailey gave her a whack on the top of the head with her purse.
Georgia complained “What have you got in there? Lead weights?”
Bailey smirked, “There may have been a couple rolls of nickels left from Vegas.”
Georgia didn’t make any more complaints and they all lay down on the bed and tried to sleep. It was a warm night so they didn’t have to worry about using the covers and it was something of a relief to have the roaches dead, but still…
There was very little sleeping, and a lot of whining overnight and it was with some relief when 6am came and they figured they could find someplace open to get breakfast.
By the time they returned home that afternoon, they felt they could safely say that Olive had been to a genuine Roswell UFOFest and survived. And all through the day, no one had ever twigged to the fact that Olive was a genuine alien. Go figure.
Chapter Ten
Sea Change
Cai and I got back from the lake about sunset. Sitting at the table talking later, I began to feel more uncomfortable about what I’d said earlier.
“Cai, you suppose that sitting with our heads in the sand is the best policy?”
“I assume you mean that ignoring the problem won’t make it go away?”
I had to laugh. “Yes, thanks for the translation.”
“My pleasure. And, I think I had arrived at much the same conclusion. That possibly it would be better to be more proactive, at least on this particular subject.”
“You mean you think we should go beat the crap out of the bastard?”
“Thanks for the translation. And yes, that’s what I meant.”
I nodded. “We’ll talk together about it in the morning. All of us. Think we should bring Georgia up to speed?”
“I think we should either bring her up to speed or see if we can gently push her back home.”
“She’s been spending a lot of time with Bailey and Olive. I doubt she really misses much, she’s a smart girl.”
From behind us, Georgia spoke up. “Thanks. I think.”
I jumped and winced. “OH. Hello, Georgia.”
“Hello, sickie. Sorry about the startle. I’m not sure if I should be happy or insulted - push her back home, huh?”
I looked at Cai. “Something like that. What do you think you know about what we’re talking about?”
“You mean like Olive is some kind of alien and we’ve been running around in a spaceship, or something else?”
I grinned at Cai. “See? No, that’s pretty much it.”
She came over and sat on the chair arm beside me. “I kinda knew from that day in the airport, I just figured you’d come to me when it was time.”
I nodded. “I guess it’s time.”
She kissed my forehead. “Ok. Ready when you are, boss.”
Olive’s voice popped in out of the air, “Hey, you can’t call her boss, that’s my line!”
This time Georgia jumped. “Hey, she’s been my boss longer than she’s been your boss!” She looked at me, then asked, “Uh, that’s true, right? Olive hasn’t been around for as long as me? I have seniority?”
I patted her hand. “Yes, you have seniority, Georgia.” She sat back and preened.
Olive gave a disgusted sigh and appeared next to the chair arm, poked Georgia, and said, “You can’t just get by on cute all the time, you know.”
Georgia, who seemed unfazed by Olive appearing out of thin air, gave her a sly wink and said, “I know. I have backup assets as well.”
Olive’s eyebrows raised and for once didn’t seem to have an answer. Kudos to Georgia!
I smirked at all and sundry. “Let’s think about it all tonight. Tomorrow morning we’ll do some brainstorming about what we need to do.”
There were various and varied good nights from all parties. I’m pretty much on my own again now, moving a little slowly, but beyond that getting around alone. I’m not to the point of hitting people with my cane with they try to help me, but I’m considering getting a cane just so I can whack people with it. I think I’m too young to start calling people whippersnappers yet, though. My doctors continue to be amazed and confused at how fast I’m healing. I told them about Chelan’s water, and I think some of them are considering coming here on vacation. Just shows you that even people with brains are gullible.
The weather seems to follow our moods here, or probably more accurately, we’re impacted by the weather. It was cool and stormy looking that morning, which was poetic considering our discussion. I still stood (or more accurately sat) to one side, however, letting Olive and Cai duel it out at the stove, making eggs and pancakes and waffles for us. Olive really seems to enjoy the showmanship part of the pancake making extravaganza that she puts on. Cai seems more interested in the artistry of what it is he’s cooking. They make a good pair.
Everyone made it to the table, and we had breakfast together, much nicer than store-bought items, but of course, much messier and more time consuming. Once we’d all eaten and had some conversation, I brought the topic around to the mountain. Since not everyone knew the history, I told them the whole story about finding Kit, all the adventures I’d had in finding the parts, and Kit’s eventual heading off to the main ship to
be head-shrunk.
I introduced Olive to those who only knew her as Olive, and told them about her, even told them about “Project Real Girl” as she blushed in front of us. I told them her last name, “Daship” and the joke of how that happened. Mom nodded and chuckled about that, I don’t think she knew until then.
Finally though, I had everyone caught up to today.
“So, yesterday Cai and I were talking, and I was feeling discouraged in general. I thought the best thing was just to pull our heads in and sit and wait it out, maybe it will never come back. But then, by the time Cai and I got back from the lake last night, I’d kind of had a change of heart. As Cai said it, we should go kick the crap out of the bastard. Loosely translated, of course.”
I looked around at the crowd. “Now, of course, that means we’d have to find it, and then figure out how we could really hurt something indestructible. But I kind of figure, and correct me if I’m wrong, Olive, that if we harry him to the point of him being out of power he should just finally pull back into his little container to sit and wait for the next victim. And yes, I know, I’m calling it a ‘him’ now. It’s a bad habit, but makes it easier. I’d be happy to call it a her if anyone would rather, but ‘it’ comes hard for me.”
“Any comments? Am I off base here in thinking that sitting in our cave hoping he won’t try to find us is too passive for us? Or should we just wait and hope she goes away.”
Everyone glanced around the table at each other. Bailey grabbed another piece of bacon and waved it in the air as she said, “Well, I’m for kicking the bastard’s rear. I’ve been here watching over Jane the whole time, seeing her come back from nearly dying - and the idea of punishing whatever did it to her makes me warm inside.” She chomped down on the bacon, looking aggressively around the table.
Mom spoke up. “I agree with Bailey. I’ve never been one to sit waiting. I say we take the fight to it.”