Children of the Source (24 page)

    “The eugenicists?”

    “Right.  Some know things got out of hand and that  ethics are needed, a new direction.  Some don’t care.  They just want the technology and the field to play in.  They will choose a time to try and embarrass you with Marta and the Queen of Adora.  It may also be an innocent request, considering the vast knowledge of your Entity.  To access that knowledge.  I suspect it will be when Muldower is here.  I still have another assassination attempt with a spider coming.”

    She leaned on her elbow at that.
  I told her of the room in the spacecraft with its curious personal items and the shielding within.  “Someone from The Thera?”

    I nodded.
  “I’m assuming the same person tried to help Nick shove the knife into me.  That’s why it went so deep.  Normally it would have stopped at my rib.  I could feel the extra heave-ho from an outside source.  But this person is perfectly shielded.  I suspect if I go back to the spacecraft at a random time, the room would be vacant.  The room may be a setup to distract and point me in another direction.  Not something I need.”

    “So what do we do?”
 

    “Stay alert.
  Put puzzle pieces together.  We don’t have enough information on the aliens’ past and present to create a clear picture.  Memories are not in place yet, and I don’t know where to go to get them.”  I laughed.  “Wasn’t life simpler before the aliens came?”

    She sat up, hair tousled, and stretched.
  “Jamie, I knew I’d be in trouble with you one day.”

    “Got you in trouble twice as I recall.”  I eyed her.
  “Both time it was voluntary on your part.” 

    “I wasn’t talking about Victoria or Abe.
  This alien thing.  The dimensions of it are larger than we thought,” she said. “Messy.”

    “Messy,” I agreed.
  “On a planetary past and present scale beyond anything we’ve ever imagined or considered.  Like all of this was deliberately hidden.”

    “It was.
  Crafty Souls, Entities I mean.  And we’re in the middle of it.  Then there is Laith and, his
coming of age
so to speak.  We need to stabilize the local government leaders and the aliens to let it happen.  Are the aliens even aware of Laith?”

    Judith reached for her bathrobe.
  I helped her into it.  “Fresh,” she said, smacking my hand, looking pleased.   God, what a gorgeous creature.  “They know our system is about to undergo a transition.  That’s one of the several reasons they came.  Our Entities planted us here.  They knew.”

    “Feel used?”
  I said.  “But you have to admit it’s all very exciting.”

    “Very exciting,” agreed Judith.
  “But not when it comes to killing you.  I know we made a lot of enemies during the eugenic wars, but I know only a few standouts.  Who else?  Who else?”  She tapped her fingers on the kitchen table.  We sat before steaming mugs of hot tea.  Laith came in and cheerfully joined us. 

    “Trying to figure out the bad guys before they figure you out.”  He smiled.
  “So far so good.  I dreamed of your younger brother, Dad.  Uncle Jesse.  Seems your parents were into ’j’s.”  He grinned.  “He and a gang of kids with a dog, cat and Aunt Marcy are headed our way.  New baby.  Lynn.”

    Judith looked at me. “New baby?”

    “Yep,” I said.  “They’ve been coming.   Dodging sharks, sea-going crocs, and bad guys.  They’ve been busy.  Current problem is not good.  Keeping tabs on the group.”

    “Not good?”
  Judith eyed me.

    “A member of the Brotherhood is stalking them with a high powered rifle.”

    “Brotherhood?”

    “A gang of religious fanatics.
  Really, a cover for a gang of slavers and criminals who prey on whomever they can.  Jesse killed the leader’s brother in self-defense.  The leader sent teams to kill them, with no success.  But this guy is a problem.”  I sighed.  “We’ll work with them to help solve it.  Jesse and Marcy’s family is unusually cohesive and focused, with enormous strength and purpose.  Everyone looks out for everyone else and the group as a whole.  They know above all to stay positive.”

    “How many in the family?”
  Judith asked.

    “Three girls and two boys plus baby Lynn, Marcy and Jesse.
  A Pride of Children.  Extra ordinary group of personalities,” I said.  “Marcy and Jesse have been collecting the children as time and circumstance provide.”

    “So where are they?”

    “About thirty miles out.  We need to send a rescue party.  God knows, they can use it.”

    “When you’re thinking of them, Jamie, what comes to mind?”
  Judith asked.

    “Jesse is thinking  ‘a hunting we will ago’.
   The song is going off in his head.  He’s dueling with this man.  They’re stalking each other.”   I shook my head.  “Not good.”  I folded my hands together and sent a portion of myself to my brother.

    Then we heard the chopper.
   I ran my hand through my hair, closed my eyes, and sighed. 

    “Brian Muldower?”
 

    “Yeah.
 

    “Is he going to be trouble?”
  Laith asked, standing behind me.

    “Hope not.” I said.  Laith whistled.
  “What?”  I twisted around looking up.

    “Your bald spot is gone.
  Your hair is full again without grey.  You’ve ceased to age.  And Mother too.  What’s going on, Mom. ? Dad?”

    I laughed.
  “The Sound Language.  Being part of the Thera.  These things are from our Entities.  Natural as breathing.  Something we’ll need.”  I looked at my son.  “Not something you’ll need, my handsome.  Let’s go see Mr. Muldower.”

    “Your reading glasses, Dad.”
  Laith handed me my  glasses.

    “Thank you, my son, but they are not necessary anymore.
  For now.”  I set them down.

   
 We met the chopper with the General, Muldower, and Randolph.  The Council was there.  The aliens arrived in a large disk shaped ship.  Technicians were working with our people, the soldiers, and the local population on upgrading our waste water and sewer system to an enclosed recycling system using light and sound.

    Muldower was talking with the General.
  He saw me and turned.  “Mr. Muldower,” I said.

    “The blood red of Spain,”
  he said, pulling on his neck, studying me, mouth crumpled.  “The dreams of last night preyed on me.  You’re a cruel man, Jamie.”

    “The coverso laid a curse on the inquisitor that he would never forget the injustice he had done and it would prey on him forever.  The inquisitor was f
rom your Entity and the converso from mine.”

    “There is a hell of’ va lot more of me than I thought.
  Parts I wish I’d never met.”

    “And?”

   “Now I understand why I didn’t feel comfortable around you.  The things I did to you.”

    “But you
r inquisitor learned and protected an innocent young woman.  That’s worth something.  Everything.  He changed.  Began to help the innocent.  When he died, he was revered for his humanity and justice,”  I said.  “The curse or thought form held and followed you into this life, so your intense interest in justice for everyone.”

    “But what I did to you.”

    “That has to be left where it happened.  In the past.  That’s why people don’t remember so-called past lives of their Entities.  They do have the essence memories or the lessons learned.  We are all new personalities here. That’s the opportunity of the future.”  I watched the tall man.  “So, you know why you didn’t want anything to do with me.  And the opposite can be true.  Judith and I have a long history.  Can you work with us, Mr. Muldower?  We need your help.”

    “I can,”
  Muldower said.  But I wasn’t convinced.  He was holding back.  He needed more.  I turned and stared at the Peaks.  Jesse.  The duel was ending badly for both my brother and the man from the Brotherhood.  Turning back, I excused myself, grabbed Laith and raced for the house, leaving a stunned group behind me.  “Jessie,” Laith said.  I nodded.

    We lay on my bed at the house.
   Laith was first out of his body.  I followed with difficulty as my emotions were getting in the way.  I arrived in a small clearing with tall pine trees, and a lanky middle aged man pinned to a pine tree by an arrow.  Blood stained the tree trunk and flowed down his body.  My brother hunched over in excruciating pain, bleeding out of multiple wounds all over his body.  I couldn’t be sure where his blood and the other man’s blood started and ended.  A major mess.  “Gotcha,” Jesse got out, struggling to control his pain..  “You thought I was going to jackrabbit.  But I ain’t dead until I’m dead.”  A mountain lion roared in the distance. 

    “You should have the courtesy to kill me,” the man grated.

    “Ain’t no courtesy due you.  No.  The mountain lion will finish you.  Leaving you alive will keep the meat warm.”  Jesse tried to laugh, but couldn’t.  “I have to go.  Oh.”  He fought the man’s shoes off and threw them down the hill after the gun.  Then grabbing a fist-sized stone smashed the man’s right big toe.  The man shrieked and swore, vowing vengeance.  Then struggling to breathe through the pain, Jesse staggered off toward his   camp.

    We guided him through his haze of pain, kept his bleeding in check, and made him mobile as he needed.
  It seemed to take hours, but when he arrived at camp, we joined the healing ring, and began to work on him.   A psychically gifted older girl became our instrument to open, clean, and close his many wounds.   I used the Sound Language to adjust energies and flesh.  Jesse stood outside his body looking on, astonished.  I wasn’t sure if he would retain the memory of the experience.  Laith spread his energies in ways I didn’t understand to provide a vast background that stabilized everything.  His energies interfaced with the Earth, trees, and atmosphere, making what I did easier. 

    Slowly we knit my brother’s body back to one piece.
  He’d be sore, but functional.  A couple of hours later we were done.  When we left, my brother lay sleeping beside a small fire.  The rest of the group sat back, tired but fulfilled.  We communicated with the young girl, Felice, that  rescue  was on the way.

    Back at Cheshire we met with our council to arrange for a rescue party.
  They would head out the next day.  “I hope the General and Muldower weren’t too upset by my sudden departure,” I said to Florence.  The last rays of the evening sun spread and died leaving soft twilight. 

    “They’ve seen enough of you to know something unusual needed your undivided attention.”

    “If all goes well, we’ll have a new family joining us,” I said.

    “How many in your brother’s family?”
  Greg Lopez asked.

    “Eight.
  Jesse, Marcy, baby Lynn, three girls, and two boys.  An excellent asset to our group.  Do we have a house available?”  I turned to Victoria.

    “The aliens have volunteered to build a house.
  Perhaps we can have one waiting  when they come in,” she said.  “I’ll talk with Severin tomorrow.”

    “The General and Muldower will be back tomorrow to meet with you, Jamie, and hope there will be no interruptions.”
  Florence eyed me.

    “They were mad?”
  I asked.

    “Muldower looked like he had some things to say,”
  Greg said.  “You can’t repeat what you just did.”

    “I apologize.
  Not someone to aggravate.  I’ll see if I can make amends in his dreams.”  Greg didn’t pull punches.  A warning I had to take seriously.  I wasn’t popular with Muldower in the first place.  I didn’t like the man, but I had to work with him.  The dreams of the Inquisition, the converso, and the young woman hadn’t done the trick.  They had opened a door, but only a little.  There had to be something more tangible.  Something he could touch, something physical.   There had to be a touchstone we could use.  At a loss to figure out what to do, I asked the Powers-That-Be and my Entity for help and guidance.   I spent the evening being preoccupied until Judith accused me of being depressed, made some catnip tea, and presented a plate of cookies.  She flirted with me outrageously, and I finally told her my thoughts.  She didn’t have a clue what to do either.

    That night as much as I tried,  little came to me .
  We went to breakfast, and  found ourselves in the Dining Hall line behind Molly Tinsdale.   “Lo, Jamie, Judith.”  Her husky full voice betrayed everything about her.

    “Lo, Molly.
  How goes it today?”  I asked.

    “Good.
  The adjustment you made helped a lot.  I’m eating better.  Thank you.  Maybe you can do some more in the future when I figure out what I need.”

    “Whatever you want,” I said.
  Maggie Molly Tinsdale, eighteen, used a wheelchair to get around.  Her body had numerous problems, and I’d offered to make her whole again as much as I could.  But she elected to have things done slowly.  She was the most positive person I knew.  She never felt sorry for herself, and was a leader in keeping us on even keel.  She saw some friends, waved, and excused herself at the end of the cafeteria line.