Aliena Too (2 page)

Quincy winced but stood firm. “I accept it. This will hurt her less than my death would.”

And that was it. The die was cast.

“There is an ambulance waiting outside,” Johnson said. “You make take it now.”

Quincy stood. Lida stepped into his embrace, kissing him avidly. Thus swiftly was their marriage ending, in reality if not semblance. “I love you!” she whispered. “This is why I'm doing this.”

He smiled briefly. “Ditto, dear.”

They separated. Lida's vision was blurred with her tears, and she knew the same was true for Quincy.

Then Johnson escorted him out the door.

But Rebecca and Maple stayed. “There is more, now that you have decided,” Rebecca said.

Lida still would have preferred to faint. But she had to play this through. “More?”

“It is time to meet Aliena.”

“The original starfish? But she's gone.”

“Not exactly. She is with us now, just not in body.”

“I don't understand.”

“She's in the glasses,” Maple explained.

“The glasses?”

Rebecca touched her glasses. “These have been enhanced. They transmit what I see and hear to Aliena, and she communicates with me via the earpieces. We brought a similar pair for you, made to your prescription.” She brought out a pair of glasses that looked much like the ones Lida wore. “Try them.”

Lida took off her glasses and put on the other pair. They worked well; they were indeed made to her prescription and adjusted to her face.

“Hello, Lida.” It was a soft woman's voice.

Startled, she looked around, but there was no one.

“The earpieces,” Rebecca reminded her. “They conduct the sound to the bone around your ear, in the manner of a hearing aid. It sounds real.”

Oh. “Hello, Aliena,” Lida said, bemused.

“I will be with you from here on, if you are amenable,” Aliena said. “I am in my own host body, a starfish in the station, and my words are translated, as are yours for me. I will be your contact for the starfish, so that you will never be in doubt. I will guide you when you visit the station, and make sure the way is clear. I can assure you already that your husband will be well cared for; I will see to it myself.”

“Oh. Thank you.” What else could she say?

“There will, of course, be no monetary expense for you or your family, as Johnson told you; in fact, you will be well-off financially.”

“I'm not doing this for money!” Lida exclaimed, pained. “I never even thought of money.”

“You did it for love,” Aliena said. “I understand. I gave away my own husband for love.”

“Yes you did,” Lida agreed, appreciating the similarity of their circumstances, though Aliena was an alien creature in the body of a starfish.

“Johnson and Rebecca will have more for you, and of course so will my child, Maple.”

“You gave up your child too,” Lida said, feeling the additional pain of that.

“She visits me. Star takes good care of her. And so do her grandparents. This life, different as it would be for you, is ultimately good. But if you have any question, ask me and I will help as I can.”

“How can you help?”

“I run the starship. Anything we can do for you technologically, we will.”

“You run the starship? That must be complicated! How can you have time for me?”

“It's not complicated. Machines do the work. I merely give the orders, and not many of them. This exchange of hosts is vital to the starship's mission. It is very much my business. But that is practical; I also care personally. I know what you are going through, losing your beloved, and how hard it is.”

And surely she did. “Thank you.”

“Now I will leave you to Rebecca and Maple. I will stay out of your life except when you wish my participation. But you need to understand that as long as you wear the glasses, I can see and hear everything that you do. You are not alone.”

That knowledge helped. “Can we be friends?”

“If you wish, knowing my alien nature.”

“You loved and lost a human man. What else counts?”

Aliena sighed. “Emotionally, very little. Now I will go silent.”

Lida looked at Rebecca. “I like Aliena.” She was half surprised to hear herself say it, but it was true.

“So do I,” Rebecca said.

“She's my mother,” Maple said. “Star is all right, and I like her, but I am Aliena's child.”

“There will be formidable changes in your life,” Rebecca said. “You won't be able to live here any more.”

“Why not?”

“Security. The starfish are here to help us, and to be our stellar companions, but there are those who fear and hate aliens of any nature. They are paranoid about starfish intentions, thinking that they want to take over the world and extirpate all humans, or make them into meat animals. That's absolutely not true; all the starfish really want is sapient companionship, so they are not alone in the universe.”

“You're sure of that?”

“Yes. You will be too, as you come to know them better.”

“I certainly hope so.”

“The identity of the star man will have to be concealed, just as Aliena's identity was at first. That is why you must treat him as your husband in every detail, so that no one knows about the change. But there will inevitably be hints, and some will catch on, so he must be guarded. We will move you into the bunker Aliena used, and assign the same guards.”

“Bunker! Guards! What is this, a prison?”

“Oh, no, it looks and functions just like a house. But it is bomb proof and gas proof, and impermeable to invasion. And the guards are nice people; you'll like them.”

“But how can we live any normal existence, if we have to be constantly guarded?”

“It can be tricky.”

“What of neighbors? Won't they notice?”

Rebecca smiled. “They're nice too, and will be in on the secret.”

Lida spread her hands. This seemed impossible. “Whatever.”

“It'll be fun,” Maple said. “You'll see.”

It was hardly fun, with the loss of Quincy, but it was a considerable distraction, which actually helped abate her grief. She had to put their house on the market and prepare to move to another city with “Quincy” so their current neighbors would have no idea. All they knew was that Quincy was undergoing complicated treatment in another state and Lida could no longer afford to live here. The couple would be new to the bunker location, so no one not already in the know would be aware of the change in her husband. Lida was making the arrangements while Quincy was undergoing the brain transplant. She actually had considerable help, but it was masked; her name was the only one on the documents.

In two weeks Lida made her good-byes and caught a taxi to the airport. She was on her way to the new existence. All perfectly routine on the outside, but inside she was knotted. She wished Quincy could have been with her to handle the details as he normally did. That thought put her into a brief fit of grief she hoped the cabby didn't notice. She did not like traveling alone. In fact, she did not like
being
alone.

The new residence did not resemble the grim bunker Lida had pictured. It was a quite ordinary house in an ordinary neighborhood. But she quickly saw that this was illusory; the home was only the top part of a massive underground complex with rail transport to elsewhere. It was indeed a bunker.

She met the guards: a solid man and thin woman standing at the front door. “I will introduce you, if you like,” Aliena said.

“Yes, please.”

“Say ‘Aliena sent me,' and introduce yourself.”

Lida walked up to the couple. “Aliena sent me. I am Lida Fisher.”

The man laughed pleasantly. “And she is with you now, Lida, as she is with us.” He touched his own ear, where a tiny button showed. “I am Sam, and this is Martha. We will be Quincy's bodyguards, but we hope also to be your friends, as we were with Aliena. Come in.”

They showed her around the building, not excluding the subterranean aspect. “But normally you will stay in the upper section,” Sam said. “This is just to be sure you know what exists, in case you ever need it.”

“Why would I need it?” Lida asked, fishing for more information.

“The swan could not always protect Lida,” Martha said.

Now Lida laughed. “That was Leda, a different person. She was raped by the god Zeus in the form of a swan and became the mother of Helen, whose face was said to launch a thousand ships. I have no such history.”

“Oh, my,” Martha said, embarrassed. “I did get the names confused. But the point remains: the starfish may have godlike powers, but we still have to be careful. There can be nuts in any crevice.”

The master bedroom was pleasant, with all the amenities including phenomenal cable. There was a very nice kitchen and a well-stocked larder. “You will have do the shopping and cooking and laundry yourself,” Martha said. “So as to appear completely normal.”

“I normally do do these things myself,” Lida said. “And I
am
completely normal. Why should it be otherwise?”

“Because of
him
.” Martha said. “Your husband. He will need considerable guidance, as Aliena did at first.”

Oh. Of course.

As yet she remained alone. She put on a raunchy cable program, trying to distract herself from her isolation, then thought of how Quincy would have enjoyed it, and felt more alone than ever. In a few days his body would return, and that was bound to be worse yet.

She met the neighbors. Mrs. Green was an old retired woman living alone, lonely and friendly. “Oh, are you moving into that vacant house? The prior occupants were unusual.”

“You can tell her, and mention me,” Aliena said.

“I am Lida. I—my husband—you remember Aliena?”

“Oh my yes! Delightful girl. But then she went public and moved away.”

“Public?”

“When they found out she was an alien. Didn't you know?”

“Uh, yes. It's supposed to be secret. My husband—will be another alien.”

The woman gazed at her with sudden understanding. “You haven't met him yet!”

“I—no. My husband was losing his mind, literally. They saved him by doing a brain transplant. Now he's on the space station, and the alien will be joining me here.”

“Oh, you poor dear! I hope he is as nice as Aliena was.”

“I hope so too.” Then Lida was weeping, unable to help herself.

“Don't worry, I won't tell,” Mrs. Green said. “He will have to have privacy while he learns to be human. We'll help him, as we helped Aliena. Shame what happened to her.”

It was similar with the neighbors on the other side, Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, a middle-aged couple. They too remembered and liked Aliena, and actually enjoyed being part of the secret. “But in time he'll have to go public too,” Mr. Roberts said. “Then it will get complicated.”

Lida did a practice shopping run. Martha accompanied her, as a friend. There was no sign of Sam. “Don't worry,” Martha confided. “If there's even a hint of trouble, Sam will appear and deal with it.”

“He's watching us?”

“Always.”

“That seems like a lot of trouble.”

“Lida, you have to understand that Aliena, then Star, was the most important person on the planet, bar none. The star man will be equivalently important. The main reason there's not a visible army guarding them is that they want and need privacy, to learn the ways of Earth firsthand, not as celebrities but as ordinary folk. And your job is thus the most important too. The future of interplanetary relations is in your hands.”

“But I never asked for anything like that! I just wanted to save my husband.”

“Of course. They picked up on that dedication in you, and selected you for the mission.”

“Selected me? It's my husband who is the one who counts.”

“You both count. He because he is young, healthy, and has a fine voice.”

“Quincy couldn't even hold a tune! He always went flat.”

Martha smiled. “That will change. But the perfect host is only half of it. The perfect support is the other half. There were a dozen couples as prospects, but you were the best. Because of you.”

“I'm just an ordinary housewife!”

“You are young, healthy, and completely committed to making your marriage work. That attitude translates into the ideal for training the star man. Because this is no easy thing. You must teach him to love.”

“I love Quincy! How can I do that with another man?”

“Lida, the star man needs you, in every sense. You must do for him what you did for your husband. I repeat, the fate of two worlds depends on it.”

Lida was sure she was exaggerating, but did not care to argue the case. What she had learned was complimentary in an appalling way. Quincy owed his life to Lida's attitude? And she would have to do the same for the star man?

“She's right,” Aliena said. “Brom taught me love. You must teach the star man love. He will be programmed to love only you, but you will have to show him how.”

“This—this is preposterous! I can and will do the necessary, show him the forms of marriage and commitment, the nuances of the human way. But to tease him into loving me, when I can't love him back? That's cruel.”

“But you will love him back,” Aliena said. “As Brom loved me. That's essential.”

“You're alien,” Lida said. “You don't understand what love is. You can't just assign it.”

“I am alien,” Aliena agreed. “Hence the name Brom gave me. It was hard for me to learn love, but he taught me, and I did come to love him. You must do the same. And you must love him back. Otherwise he will know it's not real, and that will spoil it. We can't have that.”

They couldn't? Then they had picked the wrong woman for the job. But tomorrow was the day the alien would arrive, having had the transplant surgery and recovered sufficiently to operate the body. She was locked in.