Alien Alliance (44 page)

“What’s that?”

Az swore. Quickly he got Nial out of the
pilot’s seat and sat down. He checked the altitude and dropped the
plane even lower. Now it was skimming the waves.

“That’s a scanner. Not sure what kind. How
long have I been asleep?”

“Two to three hours,” said Li who was behind
him.

He switched on the communicator, “Kaz, you
there?”

“Yep.”

“Scanner. Get down.”

“Way ahead of you. I’m a few minutes away,
ahead of you.”

“Everything go all right?”

“Yeah.”

Az checked the Navigator. He was only an
hour or so away from home.

“What should we do?” asked Kaz.

Az thought carefully. He looked at Helene.
“How long was that light on for?”

“I saw it as soon as it came on.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“OK. Kaz, do nothing. Carry on. With a bit
of luck they’ll think it was a mistake. How long was the light on
before you dropped down?”

“A couple of minutes. Con is certain he saw
it as soon as it came on. He’s adamant.”

“OK. Keulfyd do nothing without a
supervisor. By the time one turned up we couldn’t be seen. I hope.
I’d give anything to know what type of scanner they have and how
good the operator is. This time of the night, probably a
junior.”

“Az are you the older brother?” asked
Helene.

“Yes, why?”

“Oh just wondering. Is that scanner on a
ship or on the ground?”

“Can’t tell but almost certainly it’s on a
ship.”

“So the curvature of Torroxell wont help us
but how come flying so low means you can’t be detected? This isn’t
radar is it?”

“I don’t know what radar is. Cheap scanners
get confused when an object is very close to the ground because
buildings and rocks on the land interfere with the signal of this
plane. Over the sea the signal also gets confused when you fly low
but I can’t remember why. Some scanners get confused when an object
moves fast; the ones that look for People. Cheap scanners that is.
I don’t know what they have. There are so many different
kinds.”

“What if this is not a cheap scanner?”

“They’ll still be tracking us and they’ll
shoot us down,” he answered truthfully.

There was silence while everyone on both
planes absorbed that. Az realised in horror that Li was behind him.
He turned and looked at her. She looked back, alert, tense, but not
looking afraid!

“I’m sorry, I forgot you were there.”

“That’s OK. I’d rather know the truth. I’m
not afraid when I’m with you. I’m afraid when I don’t know what’s
happening to you. I fell to pieces yesterday because you were later
than Mathew and you two had calculated you would be and I thought
you were dead. I panicked. I might never have known what had
happened to you.”

“Ah, am I missing something here?” asked
Nial. “Aren’t you a bit young for this Li?”

“No!” said Li and Az together, Az with a
little more emphasis.

Helene laughed.

“Does Kelly know about this?” asked
Nial.

“Am I still alive?” Asked Az and they all
laughed.

“I’ve Chosen Az,” Li said quietly. “He’s my
husband now.” There was silence as Nial and Helene absorbed this.
Li had spoken too quietly for the other plane to hear. “Please,
don’t tell Kelly yet. We have enough to think about.”

“Oh. Az, in your culture, who tells
Kelly?”

Az smiled. “Li,” he said.

“Ok,” said Li, “I’ll stand behind you when I
tell her.”

They all laughed again. Az wondered about
these Terrans. They could get shot down any minute and they were
laughing. And they were all civilians. If this was how civilians
acted, what were their warriors like? These Terrans were tough.

“How good are our chances?” Li asked
him.

“I honestly don’t know. It always was a risk
but we weren’t detected last night so I thought we might get away
with it. We still might. We’re still flying and the light has gone
out. That might mean nothing. One scanner may have located us and
another type might be tracking us now.”

“Will we risk the others if we land near
them?”

“I think if we don’t get shot down that will
mean they’ve lost us. Flying over land is safer and we are more
difficult to track. Land is only an hour away.”

“You’re not afraid,” Az said to Li.

“Well we all thought there would be a risk.
It’s easier to be here with you than waiting and not knowing. We
have something we call radar and another detector that works in
water. We also have other detectors so we figured the Keulfyd would
have them too.”

“You have a detector that works through
water?”

“Yes, sonar. Why? Don’t you?”

“No. Does that mean you can attack from on
water?”

“Yes. And under it.”

“What do you mean under it?”

“We have submarines. Ships that travel under
water or under ice. They have to have a detection system or they
could hit icebergs or land.”

Az looked at her in astonishment. He thought
about the implications of that. And what would happen if marine
planets found out. Some fish were very aggressive.

The light stayed out, there were no more
indications of detection but they didn’t relax until they got onto
the ground. The sun was just coming up and the violets of the
sunrise were beautiful. Mathew was there.

“Good flight?” he asked Az.

Az explained about the scanner adding he had
concluded that the scanner was cheap but he could be wrong and
their presence may have been detected. Mathew grunted, “well,
that’s a risk. Not much we can do about it.”

Simone came over, “We’ve converted one of
the buildings into a hanger for the planes. Kaz said they won’t be
able to scan into a building. Is that right?”

Az looked in astonishment as he watched
Kelly taxi Kaz’s plane into a building and then head for his.

“Breakfast is ready,” said Mathew and they
all headed off for the kitchen via the ‘bathroom.’

As they were finishing, Simone came in and
said, “We’ve organised some quiet bedrooms up there for all you
night shifters and she lead them all up the ramp and into a
darkened corridor. Some sort of fabric was over the windows. She
showed them into several rooms made up with the things the Terrans
called ‘bean bags’ for mattresses. There were also some covers to
go over the bags and more fabric already over the room’s
windows.

Az yawned and noticed to his amusement that
several others were yawning too. Kelly had followed them up and
supervised Stella, Helene and Li in one room while the boys shared
the other several rooms. Kelly kissed the girls goodnight and left.
After she had disappeared, Li got up, looked around until she
located the room Kaz and Az were sharing and slid in beside Az. Kaz
sighed, picked up his bag and moved to find another room.

Li yawned and snuggled in. The bags were
very big and ample size for both of them. Az wondered what he
should do now and then realised a minute later to his astonishment
that Li had gone to sleep! Oh well. At least he didn’t have to
worry about what to do next. He looked down at her. He had never
felt so alive as among these Terrans. Their females were
astonishing. He yawned.

Several hours later, he awoke to find Li
still sound asleep. He guessed she had not slept the first night he
had flown. He lay there watching her sleep and drifted off to sleep
himself again.

Several hours later, waking again, he
urgently had to get up, but bags were not designed to get out of
easily. He rolled out, trying not to wake her and headed for the
bathroom. Returning, he saw her in the corridor heading in the
opposite direction probably on the same mission. These Terrans
insisted on one bathroom for females and one for males. Another
puzzle he hadn’t worked out.

Kaz gave him a stare when Li and he turned
up very late for food. He wasn’t about to tell his little brother
that he’d spent all night (day) with Li and nothing had happened.
He suddenly had an awful thought; did Terrans mate in water? That
would be a romance ended before it started! He couldn’t exactly ask
either.

Checks finished, Az noticed that there were
two different pilots tonight, Akira and Mayling. Tonight, he was
loaded with the additional virus for the Opodskell and Trydshell
all compatible and in the same tank. This night was uneventful. No
scanner alert, no other problems and the plane now had a bathroom.
Again, he managed a quick sleep during the flight. Again, all the
Terrans accepted his authority and quickly obeyed every order. And
again Li sneaked into his bed in the morning but they just slept.
They were both exhausted with the long hours and Li was having
fewer nightmares.

The third night, Simone, (who was in charge
of loading the virus solution along with Helkmid), told him, “the
Vubicik virus has been added to the mix as it’s ready but Helkmid
has no idea how long it will take to work. But it’s the only thing
he has that will affect the Vubicik.”

This night, his pilots were Miyuki and
Jolene. Also on board were Rani and Bella, and Ali and his father
Mohammed. Each pair equipped with food, parasite canisters and
enough to keep them for two days. He landed and dropped each pair a
days walk from each of the cities he was targeting tonight. He
found it hard to believe that little Bella was to try to get the
parasites inside the city border. Li was also perturbed.

*

On Kaz’s plane were Bea and Julia, Alia and
Helene and Harsha and Mayling. Again, the night was uneventful
apart from the two extra landings. Nial was piloting Kaz’s plane
over the water on the last leg. Kaz and Stella were curled up
together on a bag.

“Kaz, unhand that woman,” said Nial
forgetting that the communicator was on. “Kelly’s watching you two
boys.”

Az heard. An almost audible clunk went off
in his brain. He was supposed to make the first move. Not Li. Of
course! Now all Kelly’s remarks made sense. He and Kaz were being
warned off, not the girls. This was going to take a bit of
adjusting to. He’d better tell Kaz.

*

When Rani and Bella were dropped off, they
initially curled up together, waiting for the Cats to arrive to
lead them to the city. Within minutes, two Cats were there. Bella
was keen to talk but her Cat ignored her. It (a she Bella thought)
seemed grumpy.

Two of the three moons were up and the light
was enough to see fairly well. Rani wore a pack containing two
containers like thermoses, water, food and blankets. The latter
were home made from scrounged clothing since blankets and sheets
did not exist on this planet. Neither did towels. Luckily, the most
practical and popular garments (considering all the varied body
shapes and sizes), were cloaks. Rani had put fastener tape across
the bottom and parts of the sides to form a day time cloak and a
night time ‘sleeping bag.’ Very practical.

After walking an hour or so, Bella got tired
so Rani picked her up to carry her. One of the Cats nuzzled her.
Puzzled, she stopped and put Bella down. The Cat made its
intentions very clear and a delighted Bella was lifted onto its
back. Bella experimented and finally found it more comfortable to
stretch out along the Cat and almost lie down. She smiled. This was
fun! But the Cats wouldn’t talk to them. Maybe not all of them
could?

Also moving slowly towards the cities were
Ali and his father, Alia and Helene, Bea and Julia and Harsha and
Mayling. All had a guide of two or three Cats.

Several hours of walking later, the third
moon came up which made things fast and comfortable. They made good
time, arriving at their destination well before daylight. Bella had
gone to sleep several times. The Cats, clued up by the Priskya, had
scouted out caves or overhangs in which to spend the days, the rock
hiding them from any scanners. For Bella and Rani’s safety, the
Cats had excavated an overhang into a cave. The floor was smooth
soil.

Rani and Mayling had planned well, Mayling
being a keen hiker. Rani removed the bubble wrap type covering
protecting the ‘thermoses’ and put them into pillowcases Nanelle
had made. Little Bella and one of the Cats were soon asleep; the
other Cat on guard duty. Rani slept on and off during the long day.
She dreaded the night. She felt unreal. Her little child expected
to run into a war zone tonight.

Finally it was night.

“You remember. Like Mathew told you; scrunch
up like a quiet little mouse and sneak in.”

“I remember. I’ll be good. Don’t cry Mummy.
I promise to be careful.” Mathew had told all the children, during
practice,

“The most important thing is not to get
caught. Even more important than releasing the parasites. Better to
get out undiscovered than to release all the parasites but get
caught. Don’t get caught! They don’t know we’re fighting back.
Don’t let them find out.”

Bella ran off led by the Cat as close as the
Cat could get her, then on alone. Once she had gone, the Cat,
furious, stalked back to Rani determined to give this woman a
lesson on appropriate child care. She reached Rani and slapped her
paw down hard on Rani’s leg. Her mind was flooded with sheer
distress as she touched Rani’s mind; fear, anguish, guilt at not
being able to protect her child, helplessness and her mind was
crying. Rani was overwhelmed to the point of being barely able to
function now Bella had gone. The Cat leaped back, embarrassed,
contrite and also guilty for being thoughtless and judgmental. She
again touched Rani and apologized profusely. Rani threw her arms
around the Cat’s neck and howled with her voice and her mind. The
Cat was shocked at the intensity of her emotions and the level of
her distress. As she would for her own child, she soothed and
calmed Rani, reassuring her she would ensure Bella’s safety and
that she could feel Bella’s mind even from this distance. The
little girl was frightened, but safe and undiscovered. She was very
brave. She was determined to complete her mission, as she thought
of it. The Cat assured Rani she will get Bella out safely and left
to be there when Bella came out.