Alien Alliance (23 page)

Both girls then went on to describe to
Mathew what they had seen and done. They gave a rough description
of the creatures they had released and told Mathew their conclusion
that the locks were electric. That meant other locks might be the
same in the city. No planes had come near them. They wondered aloud
if it would be safe to go back into the city tonight to look for
survivors and the things they needed to survive. They had also seen
larger boats in a boat yard and since things were pretty crowded
here, that would help a lot. Especially if all the locks were able
to be opened and they could get out some boats that looked like
launches. Most people had had very little sleep since all this
began.

Although she didn’t want to be, Kelly was
impressed. She could see why the girls kept surviving. They
adapted, improvised, noticed things, used their brains, thought
about what they had seen and made conclusions from what they
observed. She wondered if she would do as well. As Mathew and the
others swam off though, Kelly again eyeballed Stella and Li.

“What are you hiding?” Years of being a
doctor had made Kelly extremely sensitive to notice when her
patients were being evasive. Or lying. She was very good at it as
Stella had frequently found out.

“Mum we found out something and the Priskya
begged us not to tell. We don’t know why.”

“Is it significant?”

“Yes. Very.”

“Why don’t they want you to tell?”

“We don’t know.”

“I suggest you discuss this with the
Priskya. Would it harm us or help us?

“Monumentally help us!”

“Then try and find out why. This will be
difficult, but if it is that significant, maybe you should tell
Mathew or Sarah or me.”

“OK.”

The girls tucked into some lunch of weird
food and then swam off to talk. They went to see Sarah.

“Who would be the best expert we have on
languages? I mean use of language, understanding of it.”

Sarah thought. “Probably Anne. She’s on the
boat over there,” and she pointed.

The girls swam over to talk to her.

“Anne, we’re trying to work something out,”
started Stella. “When we talk, exactly how do we turn our thoughts
into words?”

“We think, use a part of our brain to
translate the thought into words, then say them.”

“No, go back,” said Li. “What happens before
the words?”

Anne pondered. “First, as babies, we think
only in feelings; cold, hungry, wet etc. We communicate distress
and someone fixes it.”

“We meant as adults. What’s the process from
a thought or feeling to a word?”

A thought starts. It forms into a symbol. We
translate the symbol into a word. We say the word.”

“So we think, then translate. And if there
isn’t a way to say what we want to say?”

“We pick the nearest word or make a new
one.”

“So it’s not exact and it’s slow,” said Li
thoughtfully.

“We talk by…We know this best by studying
those in whom the process is not working. Like victims of brain
damage.”

“Like a stroke?”

“Yes.

“They know what they want to say but often
can’t say it. One friend of mine said talking is like going to a
bookcase and picking out the words you want to say, then putting
them all in the right order and saying them. That sounds slow but
it is incredibly fast. But for her, it was like going to the
bookcase and finding words missing. She knew there should have been
words there but because they were missing, she couldn’t say them.
She was thinking like a thought or feeling or symbol but couldn’t
find the word to say it. Usually she could pick an alternative but
it wasn’t quite right. Other times, she could go to the bookcase
and it was empty. She would then either stand there with her mouth
open or swear. She could remember those words! It was terribly
frustrating for her. A lot of her other brain functions weren’t
going either or were not going properly.”

“What happened to her?”

“She fell off the back of a motorcycle and
landed on her head.”

“That caused a stroke?”

“Yes. A stroke is brain damage. A lot of
things can cause brain damage. In her case it was trauma but it can
be due to infections, disease process, poisons, drugs,
haemorrhaging, loss of circulation due to clots, other things too.
Lots of things can cause brain damage.”

“Did she recover?”

“Mostly. Some brain functions never worked
very well again. She also had difficulties with memory and learning
complex new tasks. Most of her language skills came back. Just as
well. She was a nurse.”

“So if we could just communicate in
thoughts, or symbols, it would be much faster and more accurate,”
said Stella thoughtfully.

“Yes, that’s called telepathy.”

“Can some people do that?”

“I’ve often wondered. There are always
claims. I have always suspected that the claims could be based on
reality. Maybe in the past before spoken language.”

“Why would we switch to something
inferior?”

“I’ve discussed this with students before.
Telepathy would not be able to be used in writing. Or between
distances. It would have a range. Also people who could use it
would be at a huge advantage. Like in war. If there were few of
them, they could have been wiped out. Maybe because they were seen
as a threat. There are a lot of civilizations that have risen and
then abruptly died out or disappeared.”

“But the ability could remain in our genetic
code. In some people.”

“Yes. Why?”

“We have a problem,” said Li. “We need to go
and talk to the Priskya.”

They swam off leaving a puzzled and
thoughtful Anne behind them. Kelly had also been watching. The
girls swam over to a group of Priskya. Kelly and Anne watched as
quite a conference started. Within a few minutes, many Priskya were
there, some senior ones. After nearly an hour, it was obvious to
everyone that something was going on. A lot of senior Priskya were
there.

Finally, most of the Priskya swam off
towards the shore.

The girls went off to look for the boys.
Mahmoud looked back to his old self except he was very worried
about his family. No one in the city had seen them and none of
these here. So many were missing. Of the original 418, there were
173 in the boats. Most were women and children. Nineteen out of the
20 of the American Delegation were missing. Most of the diplomats
were gone and most of them had been men.

“They might have been in the caves. If so
they could be safe,” he said hopefully. Donny was by his side as
usual.

“What were yous up to this morning and what
was all that confab with the Priskya?” asked Donny.

The girls explained again about the zoo.

“And what else?”

“The Priskya asked us not to tell.”

There was a thoughtful silence.

“Why?”

“We don’t know, but I am beginning to
suspect. We asked the Priskya to reconsider. We think Mathew needs
to know.”

“You think no one knows?” asked Stella.

“Yes. I think it is a very carefully guarded
secret. What Anne told us makes sense.”

“Anne knows?” asked Donny.

“No. But something she said about brain
damage…”

The boys looked baffled. A group of Priskya
children had come up and Stella and Li slid over the side of the
boat to go and play. It was either get in the water or sit cramped
in a boat. Only one boat was big enough to walk in; the one the
older ones were on like Mathew, Sarah, Alan, Dan, Kelly and Bert.
Obviously a lot of people felt the same way. Soon, there were more
in the water than out of it.

Stella and Li snuck off by themselves.

“You realise the Priskya are probably
telepathic also.”

“That had occurred to me,” said Stella. “I
think you’re right. When you put that together with what Anne
said…”

“Hmm. Prime targets for paranoia. The other
thing that interests me is that they are different species.”

“From the same planet though.”

“Yes but different species. Is that
significant? Is it unusual? Is it logical? I mean is it ‘well of
course’ or is it unusual?”

“Stuffed if I know. Are there any other
telepathic species here? What about the balloons? And the huge
variety of insects and lizards things. Some of those lizards were
massive.”

The boys came over so they had to shut up.
Towards evening, a large delegation of Priskya came up to the
surface and swam to the biggest boat where Mathew was. Stella and
Li, who had just got into dry clothes, looked at each other,
shrugged and went back into the water in their clothes. The ritual
needed to get into dry clothes and back, via a small boat, into
their own boat had taken them nearly an hour.

Wet yet again, they congregated in the water
beside the boat with a great deal of others. The Priskya simply
asked the girls to explain what they had discovered about the large
carnivores in the zoo. So they did, adding Anne’s information and
suspicions in. The Priskya were interested in that. Mathew was gob
smacked but immediately understood the implications. Millions of
Allies that the Attacking Force knew nothing about. A land based
spy network in the least. Mercenaries at the most.

Pickdaa, the spokesperson for the Priskya
said, “There is a delegation coming down to meet with Mathew
tonight. Now that the secret is known,” she said, “the Attacking
force is the Keulfyd, as identified by our new allies. This puts us
all in extreme danger if it is discovered that Humans have this
ability you call telepathy.”

But Mathew said, “I’ve never heard of it
actually working to a significant or predictable degree. The
military have been trying for years to get a reliable communication
system and spy network going but it is unreliable and subject to
misinterpretation. Actual real talent is incredibly rare.” He
looked at Li and Stella,

“Can you two talk to each other in
telepathy?”

“No we already tried,” answered Li “and we
can’t. We don’t understand how we can talk to the creatures but not
each other. And what is the name of the creatures?” She asked
Pickdaa.

Pickdaa told them but as usual it was
unpronounceable; a sort of a growl mixed with a hiccup. It was on
the tip of Li’s tongue to make the obvious connection that the
Priskya also had to be telepathic but she remained silent. Maybe
they also could not talk between themselves.

Unaware of their impending peril and due to
the unfortunate fish BBQ the night before, the party, the sickness
and the interrogation aftermath, Ilse, Yogabala and Bea were having
trouble the next morning prompting their respective parents to help
the Aliens that had asked them to pay their bill and get them some
adults to help. Even though none of them were among the sick and
they all woke up feeling well.

“But these people are in trouble and they
asked for help,” insisted Ilse, backed up by Yogabala and Bea. They
explained again about the bill, and the ship, and the eyesight
problem. They neglected to mention they would have been late back
anyway. But the next morning, the need to detail what they had
eaten took first priority and Ludmilla sat the inpatient children
down and made them answer the questions first. Finally, they were
finished and convinced Julia to help.

Julia took the children to a hotel lobby and
explained the problem. Helpfully, the staff worked out which
company it probably was. After finding the communication company
and confirming it was the correct one, which took nearly an hour,
they handed the debit card over and it was held to a scanner(?) and
handed back. Julia, prompted by Bea, explained that there was some
urgency involved as the ship was late to pick up the Kepi and they
were unable to communicate with it due to no power.

The next problem was that the kids were
determined to get their parents to go to the caves. Now. “But Dad
please,” begged Ilse who had only got a glimpse, “the caves are
fantastic They were real nice to us and they said we were welcome.
They said land dwellers wouldn’t go to see them,” she said, (having
talked to the little ones and speculating from what they had said).
“They can’t come and see us cos they can’t see in the daylight. We
don’t need torches, they have these light things.”

“No!”

“They said they need help! They asked us to
get adults to help!” Bea said totally truthfully. Julia looked at
the stubborn, determined and convinced looks on the faces of the
children and concluded they certainly seemed to be telling the
truth and had been right so far. She thought if these Aliens really
did need help then she should help.

“All right, I’ll go,” said Julia, “but leave
your father alone. You know he can’t bear to be shut in.”

But in the end Karl came too, shamed by the
enthusiasm of his family and the Nedri family all eager to go. So
on a bright summer day they climbed up the hill behind the city to
the cave complex. It was a long walk but over fairly even ground
and there was a nice breeze. Julia was enjoying herself. It was so
good being outside. She knew Torroxell had few roads as most of the
traffic was by air. The enthusiasm of the kids was infectious, the
temperature warm and the sky a clear violet with a scattering of
fluffy white clouds.

Ali and Rani Nedri, plus all the kids went
ahead. Julia envied them their fitness and leanness as she and Karl
puffed behind them. The kids, Bea, Ilse, Harsha and Yogabala got on
fairly well together.

They reached the first of the livestock
paddocks and Julia stopped to puff and look. Her parents had been
diary farmers in the Netherlands and she was fascinated by the
fencing system which she had figured out yesterday and was keen to
show to Karl.

“My parents farmed 157 acres which counted
as a large farm. With this system, they could have fenced the whole
property in a day, around each tree in the orchard, around the
chook house. Oh what Earth would pay for this!”