Fear and Aggression (24 page)

When he turned back to Aspiria, she was
staring off into space, and seemed very deep in thought. She began
to doodle on a new page on the tablet. She drew a small filled in
circle in yellow, and then she drew a smaller blue circle to the
side of it. She made a fine black line go through the blue circle,
and encircle the yellow circle. She looked up at Steve, and said,
“This is my world.” She then drew another yellow circle on the
other side of the tablet, with a blue circle and a black line
through the blue circle encircling the yellow sphere.

“
This is your world,” she
said as Danny walked in with their meals. Danny looked on as she
continued to draw. She turned the color to brown and she drew a
long vertical line down towards the blue circle that she had
labeled, ‘your world.’ She then drew a shorter horizontal brown
line about three quarters of the way up the vertical brown line and
intersected it. The two men looked on. “Is this your
world?”

Steve’s eyes narrowed, as he looked on. He
looked up at Aspiria, with a questioning expression. “That looks
like a cross,” said Danny.

“
Did He live and die on
your world?” she asked. Steve began to feel a feeling that he had
not experienced in a very long time—a warm sensation and a peace
slowly came over him.

“
Who?” he
asked.

“
God’s Son,” Aspiria
responded.

“
Yes,” said Danny. “He did
die on a cross, but He lived again.”

“
Yes,” said Aspiria. “I
know.”

“
How do you know about
that? Have you and Tammy been talking about Jesus and religion?”
asked Steve perplexed.

“
No. We have talked about
your world, but not about God’s Son. God’s Son has been to our
world, and He has told us about your world. I did not know if it
was your world that He lived and died on. I am glad to know that
you are from His world.”

“
You know about our
world?” asked Steve.

“
I know about a world that
killed God’s Son. If that is your world, I know that about your
world. I didn’t know if that world was your world.”

“
What do you know about
our world?” asked Steve again.

“
I know that He came among
His people. He chose twelve great men. He died for
all
of the worlds. His
own people killed Him. I know that your world has very good
people—and very bad people.”

“
Danny, have you been
talking with Aspiria about Christianity?”

“
No, sir. But I want to
now. I know that He died for the entire world, but I didn’t know
that it was for all worlds. I didn’t know that there were other
worlds until we found yours, Aspiria.”

“
There are many worlds,
Danny. God’s Son has visited many worlds. He can only spend a short
time on the worlds. He spent a long time on your world. He did
great things on your world. My world would love to know all that
your world knows about Him.”

Tears began to well in Danny’s eyes. Here
was a man who never shown emotion. He was touched. His heart burned
within him. “I have a Bible; may I bring it now and show it to her?
It has pictures in it. I could show her pictures of Jesus, and
where He lived. I could read it to her.”

Steve felt a kind of warmth inside that he
had not felt since he was a child. He nodded to Danny and looked at
Aspiria. She smiled warmly. There was so much more to her than what
he had perceived.

Tammy had been wandering in and out of the
lab. She had not taken any interest in any of the morning’s
proceedings with Steve and Aspiria. Unnoticed by Steve, she had
taken some of her own blood, and had been running tests. After a
machine beeped, Tammy had just entered the lab again, and gone over
to the machine. She read the results, and then put her hands on the
counter, bowed her head and leaned on the counter for several
moments. “Steve, we need to talk.”

Steve was in a particular mental state, such
that he didn’t really hear Tammy at first. It took him a few
seconds to recognize that Tammy was speaking to him. “Oh, Tammy,
what’s going on?” he said as he turned towards her in his
chair.

“
I need to talk with you
privately,” said Tammy. Not with her authoritative non-negotiable
tone, but in a meek and more submissive manner.

Danny had not left yet. He was just
preparing to do so. “Danny, take Aspiria with you. I’m sure that
she would love to look at your Bible with you.”

This was only the second time that Aspiria
would be leaving the lab. The last time didn’t go so well for her.
Her heart rate picked up at the mention. She was conscious of the
physiological response, but she couldn’t imagine anything else that
would bring on such a reaction as her last visit out of the lab.
She got up dutifully and went with Danny.

When the footsteps were no longer audible in
the corridor, Tammy walked over to Steve. She was shaking, and had
a look of fear and great concern on her face. “I’ve not been myself
lately. For the longest time I have attributed this to the unusual
circumstances that we are in, and the stress and long hours. I’ve
been on a rollercoaster of emotions, but I figured that it was
reasonable. But, I’ve been just feeling off. I’ve been trying to
figure out what has been going on. I’ve not had a period in six
weeks, but that happens sometimes in space. Sometimes it happens
with stress, as well.”

Steve was trying to listen, and he did care,
but he was still distracted by the magnitude of his previous
conversation. He’d comprehended she has been stressed lately, and
that wasn’t new information to him.

“
So, I thought, ‘why not,
I’ll check and make sure,’ and sure enough, it’s
positive.”

The curious look on Steve’s face told Tammy
that he didn’t get it. “Steve, I’m pregnant.”

“
Four minutes until the
bell,” Mark observed to himself. It seemed like an eternity. What
was he so anxious for? The only thing that the bell represented was
that he would have to go to English class. He hated English even
more than history. His grades had been slipping the last couple of
weeks. Sheer boredom was the only reason. Nothing in school
intrigued him. Home life was boring. And Steve hadn’t sent him any
word in a couple of months. He had expected to hear something from
his brother. Finally he had given up hoping, but now he had nothing
to anticipate in life. Gramps was going to sleep earlier, and Mark
just watched whatever stupid show was on TV.

Finally the bell rang and he could at least
walk outside for a few minutes. The weather was starting to get
crisp, and he only wore a tee-shirt, but he actually enjoyed the
sensation. It wakened him a bit, and gave him a touch of life for
the day. The only thing good about English was Tess. She was a very
pretty brunette, who loved pink. She always had something pink on.
Today it was a pink flower in her hair. Mark and Tess hadn’t really
hit it off yet, but she was at least nice to him.

“
Hey, Tess.”

“
Hey, Mark.”

That was about it for today, but it was
better than nothing. Class dragged on. Tess sat in front of Mark,
and all he could do today was stare at her hair and the pink
flower. He loved those soft brown curls.

“
You are going to have a
book report due by the end of the semester,” Mark’s teacher droned.
Mark only half-listened. ”It will be on H.G. Wells,
The War of the Worlds
.
It’s one of the first books written about earthlings and aliens.
Both this book, and a later radio show taken from it, have caused
quite a stir at times. Today, the world is focused on alien contact
again. I’m sure that a lot of you have been following the news
about the Space Force. So, I hope that you will find this book
interesting.”

Once Mark heard the words ‘alien’, and
‘Space Force,’ his consciousness to reality returned. He hadn’t
actually heard what this was all about.

“
Hey, Tess,” he whispered.
“What’s this about aliens and the Space Force?”

“
Boys,” she whispered
back.

“
No, really—I wasn’t
listening.”

“
What were you
doing?”

“
Checking out the flower
in your hair.”

She turned briefly and scrunched her nose at
him. He shrugged and gave a half smile.

“
We’ve got to read a war
book about aliens, and do a book report by the end of the
semester,” Tess explained.

“
Awesome!”

“
It’s an old book,
though.”

“
Oh.”

The next thing he knew, the teacher was
passing out copies of the book. They were hardback, and very worn.
Tess got one that was practically falling apart in her hands. She
had passed back a newer one to him. “Eeeww,” she said, holding the
book like it would cause her some kind of a disease.

“
Here, give it to me. I’ll
trade you.”

She agreed readily, and
they swapped books. Marks book was pretty disgusting, but he didn’t
care—especially since he got to make a trade with
Tess
. I think that I’m going to like this
book
, Mark thought. His life was currently
so dull, that even this assignment was a significant pick-up. Plus,
Tess was being cool today.

School ended, and he walked home with a
little spring in his step. The cool air added to his brisk pace. He
actually considered opening the book and starting to read it as he
walked in the door. Gramps was already home, and looked like he was
just settling in for some news. “Hey, Gramps.”

“
Hey’ya, Markey. School
a’right?”

“
Yeah, it’s cool. We get
to read an alien book. But we have to do a report, too.” Mark
walked into the kitchen and grabbed a soda and some chips, then sat
down on the couch. Commercials were on, but they had said that the
next story was about the Space Force, so he decided to stay and
listen.

“
Speculation has been
rampant for weeks about the Space Force finding something.
Officials have been on high alert, and have been extra quiet with
reporters. Today the Vice President said that they are monitoring a
life form very closely, in a speech to supporters. It was an
apparent slip of the tongue, and the White House has been dialing
those comments back all afternoon,” said the talking head on
TV.

“
This ‘ere guy—he’s
worse’n that idiot Joe Biden, back when I were a kid.” Ryan said to
no one in particular, as he shook his head and put a bite of his
burrito in his mouth.

“
I’m hearing that the
White House is putting together a press conference for tomorrow
morning. We are getting reports of much interest and concern, both
from the scientific community and the general public.”

“
I’d don’t think they’ve
got nothin’,” said Ryan out loud, but not necessarily towards
Mark.

“
What if they did, Gramps?
What if it’s Steve! Steve will take them out!”

“
If they’d got anythin’,
it’s probably some mold growing on some rock.”

“—
maybe some kind of
killer alien mold.”

“
Na—j’st mold—nothin’
more.”

Mark was feeling excited inside. He
continued to watch the news. They had no clue. They were talking to
experts that had no clue. Then they brought in analyzers to analyze
the experts who also had no clue. It was all entertaining anyway.
Alien fascination was always simmering these days. Sometimes it
would bubble up, and today was one of those days.

“
The crews of the ZX-120’s
seem to be on a communication lock down. We are yet to talk with
any families of crew members that have received any communication
in weeks. Space Force command is giving out ‘no comments,’ like
trick-or-treat candy. Whatever is going on, we can expect some
answers tomorrow,” said someone on the TV.

“
Ya w’nt a burrito,
Markey?” asked his gramps.

He was still a little hungry, but another
burrito sounded awful to him. “No. I’ll get something later.” The
news was starting to get on his nerves, so he got up and went to
his room. He thought about starting his book, and even pulled it
out of his pack. But it really was gross, and there were a lot of
words—and no pictures. Instead he reached for his new Space Patrol
comic book. Micro aliens were getting sprayed by the Space Patrol
on the front cover. It wasn’t that great the first time, but he was
much more in the mood right now. As he thumbed through the pages,
his thoughts turned to Steve.

Eventually, he found himself lying on the
bed with the comic book on his chest. He was gazing at the texture
on the ceiling. His eyes were open, but his mind’s eye was deep in
space. Steve had told him that he had to get good grades to be in
the Space Force. He could feel motivation oozing back into his
veins. There was something out there. He knew it. Steve might be
right in the middle of it. Steve was probably the top commander out
there. So he was running everything from space. As soon as he
could, he would join him out there.

“
Who’s running against
you?” Roloff asked Seryen.

“
Bastian.”

“
Oh,” said Roloff, trying
to show some interest in the conversation. Roloff was not running
for re-election anymore. He wasn’t even acting in his office of
Mayor, though he hadn’t resigned. Seryen was acting as Mayor, and
counseling with Roloff. Seryen would have never run as Mayor, as
long as Roloff was running. Not because he could never defeat
Roloff, though he certainly could not have, but because of his
great love and respect for him. Bastian would have never run
against Roloff either, but that was simply because he would not win
against Roloff. Bastian would not consider doing anything that he
was not certain to succeed in.