A Little Rhine Must Fall (14 page)

“You’re breaking up,” I improvised with great originality. “I’ll call you back!” I hung up and stared at Cecily.

“Well?” she asked, raising one perfect eyebrow.

“That was Karen,” I explained wiggling the phone in the air for emphasis.

She blinked. There was silence and the three of us stared at the “Karen” in the kitchen.

Cecily spoke first. “I’ll go get the Sword.”

I grabbed her arm. “Oh, no you don’t!” I growled.

She shook loose. “Piper, we have no idea what that thing in your kitchen is. We need to kill it.”

I glared at her. “No. We don’t,” I enunciated slowly.

Bastet agreed with Cecily.
:Cut off its head and find out what it is:

I looked at them like they were crazy. Which they were, at least for my world.

“Piper,” Cecily said coolly, “your
family
is in there.”

“Exactly,” I said. “Which is why I don’t want you
decapitating
someone
in my living room
!”

:Would the garage be better? We could lure it out there:

I rolled my eyes. “No. The garage would
not
be better.”

“Sarah can erase everyone’s memory,” Cecily pointed out.

I gritted my teeth. “No. We are not killing anyone in my house.” I thought for a moment. “Okay. Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll get rid of everyone, with the Voice if need be. Sarah can
lightly
fix everyone’s memories. I’ll take Sarah and Karen out for coffee and we’ll meet outside Starbucks.”

:Starbucks?:

“Overpriced coffee place,” Cecily informed her.

“The one in front of Aldis, with a large dark parking lot behind it,” I pointed out. “Away from my house.”

:We know a good place to dump the body!:
Bastet said brightly.

I covered my face with a hand and tried not to ask, “Why me?”

“Are you okay?” Cecily asked. Her voice was concerned but her eyes were bright with excitement.

“Yeah,” I said shortly. “I’m great. What could possibly go wrong?”

“Well,” she started to tick things off on her fingers before realizing that it was a rhetorical question. “Oh. Nothing will go wrong!” she lied unconvincingly.

The first part of the plan went smoothly. I snagged Sarah, briefly explained what was going on and, between the two of us, we had the house cleared of guests, the girls on their way to bed, and no one the wiser.

Suggesting a coffee run to “Karen” was simple and she readily agreed. I tried not to stare at her. She looked like Karen. She sounded like Karen. True, there was something off, but I couldn’t really put my finger on it. If the real Karen hadn’t called, I never would have guessed that I was dealing with an imposter.

We all loaded into the minivan (Cecily had nipped back to her house and returned with the Sword of Justice - man, I hated that thing) and pulled out of the driveway. Bastet perched on Sarah’s lap and must have “said” something to her. Her eyes grew wide.

“Piper?”

I looked at her through the rear view mirror. “Mmhmm?”

She pointed at the cat in her lap and made a “Did you know that your cat is talking?” face.

“Uh-huh,” I nodded.

Sarah swallowed. “Okay then.”

Fortunately the Starbucks was only a couple of minutes away and the silence in the car didn’t grow too awkward. We all got out, Bastet leaping gracefully to the ground.

“What does everyone want?” Cecily asked cheerfully. She took in my facial expression and slowly sat down at one of the outside tables. “I’m just saying,” she muttered, “we’re here; we might as well enjoy it.”

We all sat and stared at Karen. She looked puzzled. “What is going on?” she asked.

She looked so normal! I
knew
that this was not Karen, but I really hoped it wouldn’t look like Karen when (if?) Cecily decapitated it.

“The game’s up,” I said. “Who are you?”

“What?” she still looked convincing.

“
What
are you?” Bastet asked aloud.

If I hadn’t been convinced that she was an imposter before, I was now. “Karen” looked at the cat without much emotion; then she looked at me. “Are cats supposed to talk?” she asked calmly.

“No,” I said dryly, “They’re not.”

“I am not accustomed to your ways,” she said primly, folding her hands in her lap. “You seem to lead a very strange life as leader of your people.”

“Leader!” Sarah choked. “Piper’s not the leader of anything.”

“Thank you,” I said snidely.

“You are not the leader?” the imposter asked. “But you commanded the others and they obeyed.”

I was puzzled. Who had I commanded?

“On your planet’s moon,” she explained. “The others were undecided as to their course of action and you were clearly in command.” She looked around at us in bewilderment. “Did I read the situation incorrectly? I am very young. Perhaps I have made a mistake.”

We stared at her.

I said what everyone was thinking, “You’re an alien.”

“Alien?” Karen looked like she didn’t know what the word meant.

“Endring,” Cecily filled in. “You are an Endring?”

“Oh, yes!” Karen smiled happily. “I am the Endring.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Sarah broke in. “
You
are the Endring? As in, the only one?”

“Of course not,” Karen shook her head as if we were silly, “There are billions of us.”

I looked around the parking lot, half expecting other Karens to jump out and attack.

“Where?” I asked at the same time Sarah squeaked, “Here?”

“Not here,” Karen laughed. “On Endrung.”

“Endrung?” Cecily asked.

“My home planet.”

I rubbed my eyes wearily. “Hold on, you’re saying that you are here alone?”

“Yes,” she looked at each of us, puzzled. “Is that a problem?”

My eyes narrowed in irritation. “You sent a message to us, that we need to surrender,” I paused for effect, “to
you
.”

Bastet flexed her claws, scraping them across the table, “It seems that the easiest thing for us would be to eliminate you. No more Endring. No need to surrender.”

Karen shook her head, “No. That is not advisable.”

“Why?” I asked.

She met my eyes. “Your choices are surrender or destruction.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure. Nice and vague and threatening.”

Cecily bared her teeth and allowed her eyes to go completely black. “Perhaps that would be a chance we are willing to take.”

“Karen” moved in a way that again reminded me that this was not Karen. I wasn’t sure what she was capable of doing, but I had an inkling that it might be more than an even match between her and Cecily.

I grabbed both of their shoulders and pushed them back down in their seats. “Before we go off half-cocked,” I looked at the Sword of Justice which had somehow appeared, unsheathed, in Cecily’s grasp, “I want to hear, from the beginning, what is going on.” I looked at the alien. “Who or what are you? Why are you here? And why does Earth need to surrender to you?”

Sarah opened her mouth to comment but I held up a hand to stop her. “No comments. We just want to hear her, its, story, from the beginning.”

Cecily raised her hand, “If we are going to have story-time,” she bared her teeth at me, “I want to get some coffee first.”

“Me too!” Sarah chimed in, jumping out of her chair. “Piper, you want anything?”

“We’ll have a tall, caramel macchiato,” Bastet announced.

I gave a sigh of frustration. What a bunch of girls. Here we were to discuss the possible destruction of the Earth and we had to get our caffeinated sugar drink first.

“Piper?” Sarah asked again.

“No!” I half screamed. “I don’t want any coffee!”

“Yeez,” Sarah snipped, “I was just asking.” She turned to the alien. “Karen,” she paused. “Weird alien thing? You want any coffee?”

Karen shook her head. “No, thank you.”

Cecily and Sarah went into Starbucks, leaving “Karen” and me to sit awkwardly, trying not to make eye contact. Bastet lay down, front legs stretched out in front of her, Sphinx style. She closed her eyes halfway and looked totally relaxed. I envied her that calm. I was so jittery right now that if I drank even
decaf
coffee I wouldn’t need the van, I could just bounce home.

“So,” I said, nervously tapping my fingers on the table.

“So,” she agreed.

A bunch of teenagers poured out of a car and bustled and bumped into the store.

I switched to tapping my foot.

A car drove by, stereo blasting, rattling my teeth. I leaned back to try to see around the line at the counter. What was taking Cecily and Sarah so long?

“So,” the alien said again. She (it?) leaned forward, “You are
not
the leader of your people? Of this planet?”

I looked down at my jeans and flip-flops, then around the dark parking lot with the cars whizzing by on Palm Bay Road “Do I
look
like a planetary leader?” I asked.

She tilted her head to one side. “I have not met any planetary leaders.”

I had to laugh at that. “Neither have I.”

The Starbucks door opened and Cecily and Sarah came out holding drinks. Sarah opened the top of a tall drink and placed it on the table in front of Bastet. Cecily placed a mocha frappuccino in front of me.

“I didn’t ask for anything,” I grumped, secretly wanting it.

“It’s not for you,” she said, pointing at my tummy. “It’s for him.”

In that case, “Thanks.”

Once we were settled, all eyes turned back to the alien creature. I still couldn’t get used to the idea that it looked like my sister.

:Where were we?:
Bastet asked mentally while she lapped at her coffee.

“Start at the beginning,” I told the alien.

Chapter Thirteen:

Endring

“I am an Endring,” she began, “though I have never seen my home planet or met any of my kind. Forgive me if I sound like a lecturer. All of my knowledge of my home planet, your Earth, and my mission here, has been learned from an educational device.” She paused and waited for comment, but we were all busily sucking down our drinks with wide eyes.

She began again, “We shared our planet with two other intelligent species. Resources were strained as each species attempted to eliminate not only the others, but also the types of landscape that would support food for the enemy. Eventually, although my people were victorious, they were still defeated. The grasslands that provided most of the crops had been turned to desert and there was not enough food to support the surviving Endring. The leaders decided on a plan. Instead of limiting population growth, they would place each embryo conceived into a stasis chamber on a spaceship and send it out into neighboring galaxies in hopes of finding another planet that could support Endring life.

Hundreds of years ago, my ship left our galaxy and entered your own. When the ships scanners identified your planet as a high possibility, my stasis womb was activated and I was ‘born.’ For the last twenty of your years, I have been growing and learning of your planet and my purpose here.”

I set my cup carefully on the table. I had a ton of questions to sort through in my brain until I could find the right one to ask first. Sarah beat me to it.

“So, why does Earth have to surrender to you?” she asked.

The alien/Karen blinked. “Is it not obvious? I was sent to find a new home for my people to colonize. Earth is a 92% match. Perfect for growing our food. We are a peaceful race and desire to give all humans a chance to surrender and enslave themselves to the Endring. This is preferable to destroying all sentient life here.”

I swallowed. Peaceful, huh?

“We will not surrender,” Cecily growled, “And humans are not the only sentient life on this planet.”

Alien/Karen shrugged. “You will surrender, or, when I send my message back to Endring and the Colonizers arrive, you will be destroyed. A regrettable waste, as we would be able to use your services in growing our crops, but not an insurmountable loss.”

“And if I choose to remove your despicable head from your loathsome body?” Cecily stood, the Sword held out, ready to swing.

Alien/Karen didn’t even blink. “If I am killed, my ship will self-destruct within ten seconds. My people are not so foolish as to leave me unprotected.”

“So what?” Sarah said bitterly, “Your ship blows up and kills some people, that’s better than you sending the message back and
all
of us being killed!”

“My ship is not here on Earth.”

“Then what’s to stop us?” Sarah asked.

“My ship is on the moon and, if it were to explode, would take out 68% of your moon as well.”

Oh. That would be bad. I wasn’t much on science and all that, but even I knew that the moon provided a gravitational pull on the Earth that stabilized Earth’s rotation and caused our tides. Losing the moon didn’t seem like a good option.

“Why can’t we hold you captive until we discover your spacecraft and deactivate it?” I asked, not having much hope that the Endring hadn’t thought of this as well, but trying to be optimistic.

“If the deactivation code is not sent to my spaceship every twelve hours, my ship—”

“Yeah, yeah,” I cut in. “I get it, your ship will explode. Let’s come back to the whole “slave” thing in a moment. Why are you
here
? Why me? Why” I waved at her body, “Karen?”

The alien looked down at itself. “That is simple. I sent the message requesting your leaders to meet to negotiate your surrender, but I thought it prudent to remain hidden and observe. Imagine my surprise when six different sentient species arrived with no transportation device!” She stopped. “How is it that your planet can support so many species without continual warfare?”

“We’ve all evolved past such mindless fighting,” I lied with a smile.

Sarah coughed loudly behind her hand. “Ha!”

“Your leaders began to argue and it was clear that Piper here,” she pointed at me, “was in charge. When she spoke, everyone listened and obeyed. I decided to take an image, that was special to her, from her mind and change my physical appearance to match it. Thus I hoped to be able to closely observe life here on Earth before having to reveal myself. Honestly, I did not imagine that I could remain secret for so long.”