Discovery (8 page)

Povre smiled. The gentle curve of her mouth washed away any such thoughts. No, she couldn’t be that.

If he wasn’t in danger from her, she was certainly in danger from his culture. He watched all those TV shows and movies. In fact, he was a closet fan of the X-files, as well as a more open follower of Star Trek and Stargate SG-1. And who could forget that they nearly killed E.T.?

“So what am I supposed to do with you?” wondered Kent softly. “I can’t take you with me. People will call the Feds. The military. Area 51 and all that. Cops will be all over us. You don’t understand. A lot of people are scared of things they don’t understand. And they absolutely won’t understand you. You’ll get taken away and go to a lab and be analyzed to death.” He shuddered, imagining her beautiful face still and cold in death. “Where do you live? Where do you come from? Why are you here? I wish you could tell me…”

K
’NT’S CONCERN AND DISTRESS
worried Povre. Even without her abilities, she could see the change in his outward expression, as if a door had closed between them. She could see no sign of his previous eagerness to share verbal communication and information with her. Now that she was in tune with him, Povre could extend her empathic talents beyond his surface pains and emotions. She felt his fear—fear for her—and had to admit that she was terrified as well. She’d heard stories about the life forms of this planet and what they would do to people from other worlds. They even showed some of it as entertainment! Why, H’renzek had tried to scare her into obedience by showing her some of the more graphic of the intercepted broadcasts.

All Povre had asked then was
“Do we know a species that looks like that? Where did they come from? Why haven’t we contacted them? Are they dangerous? Do we keep coming back here to prevent these others from causing harm to this planet? Is this another one of their entertainment videos?”
She didn’t give him time to answer one question before going to the next.

“It’s not the species that matters.”
H’renzek groaned in frustration.
“And it doesn’t matter if it is real or entertainment. This is how they think! Goddess, Povre, what am I going to do with you?”
He’d taken her hair in both hands and shaken her, hard.

“You love me anyway?”
she’d asked when her vision cleared and her tongue had checked all her teeth to see if any had come adrift.

His only answer had been a grumpy snort.

“Do you?”

“A mistake,”
H’renzek muttered.
“Leaving you alone so long while I’ve been on assignments.”
He threw out his arms and looked ceilingward.
“Goddess give me strength,”
he said before turning his attention back to her.
“But what else could I have done? I had no choice. The ship captains refused to take an unruly youngster.”

Povre had started a protest of her innocence.

“An unruly youngster,”
he insisted.
“Always getting into trouble, always getting away with it, too. Surprised you made it this far. Beautiful, brilliant, no doubt, but spoiled. As intrepid and headstrong as…”

As Silpova, he’d almost said. She knew it. H’renzek always changed the subject when his dead Life Mate entered the conversation. Povre wanted to get him to talk about her. To tell her what really happened to change his life so dramatically. Instead, not wanting to turn him off completely, she leaned against him and put her arms around his neck. “Do you love me anyway?” she asked with her most winning smile.

“Go away, Povre. Go study something.”
She could still feel the healthy swat he’d landed on her bottom. And then his words:
“Yes, Povre, I love you. You know I do. But I swear, one of these days I’m going to sit you down for a long overdue talking to…”

But just a few hours ago, he’d abandoned her. Deactivated all her equipment, too. Oh, he
had
to do it, but she never thought it would actually come to this.

Or that he actually, really would.

Her throat tightened. Povre knew what she
should
do. She should just back out, leave, try to remain hidden and hope that the others would decide to come back for her. As unlikely as H’renzek made that sound in one of his constant lectures of the rules, Povre knew there remained a marginal chance. As long as she didn’t attract attention…

Attract attention? She’d already made an indelible impression upon one of the natives. She had no way to make him forget or keep silent short of taking him prisoner or killing him. Both options were out. Povre broke enough rules already, and violence was abhorrent to her.

She had already placed herself in his custody, whether he knew it or not. If, by some miracle, H’renzek appeared and K’nt was willing to let her go, that would be that. But Povre couldn’t see that happening, at least not anytime soon. They both needed each other right now. K’nt wasn’t sound enough to travel any distance, and neither was she. They both needed to heal and rest.

“We’re stuck with each other, K’nt.” Povre made gestures like those that he used in the attempt to define her words. She wished she were a full telepath, able to project to and receive thoughts from another. Her empathic talent wasn’t all that strong, especially if she was unable to physically touch, or at least stand very near, the entity with which she attempted to communicate. Besides, Povre’s small psi talent was a genetic oddity to her race. She wished she had the talent to make word pictures the way he did. Sure, she could sketch atoms and molecules and numbers all day long, but those wouldn’t express what she needed to say.

He was trying so hard to understand.

“You and I need to help each other right now.” She looked down for a moment. “According to my rules, I am the one who is here uninvited, and now since I am discovered, I must do as you say. This is your planet, after all. Not mine. Mine is far away.”

She saw comprehension grow on his face. A line between his eyebrows deepened. So did his feelings of worry. He pushed back a few dangling strands of hair from his eyes and sent his glance toward the sky as if seeking his inspiration from the clouds.

After letting out a long, long breath, he said something else in his language, then shrugged, and added, “Eat food.”

Povre felt another smile surface. How so typically male.
Eat first. Save the universe later.
But he was right. Her father always stressed one of the survival principals all Exploration teams were taught: when a body’s essential survival needs were met, all other problems fell into better perspective. It was a good idea.

“Let’s eat food,” she agreed.

* * * * *

“NO FISHING GEAR, NO
firearms in sight, looks okay…” There was a long silence. “You’re not going to believe this, Jack.”

“What?” Jack zipped his fly back up and refastened his belt. He kicked dirt and pine needles over the damp spot he’d made. He wanted his lunch. Rumors of strange lights—seen as far away as Bend, some ten miles east southeast, and Sunriver, some fourteen miles south—over this part of the Deschutes National Forest be darned. Most of the time it turned out to be nothing more than the rotating beacons from small local airports reflecting in clouds. Still, far too many acres had been destroyed by fire last summer. He and Cody couldn’t afford to disregard any reports of odd things. He thought longingly of the hot coffee and sandwiches stashed back in their pickup.

“There’s a guy, probably the one who left his motorcycle covered up and chained near the trailhead with the note containing personal information in case of accident, and the dates he intended to be in the area.”

Jack remembered. Dr. Kent Xavier. They had his field guides and manuals for sale at all the ranger stations and National Forest offices. He’d found them mighty useful to familiarize himself with the area when he transferred up from the Modoc National Forest in Northern California. “Yeah, so? He did everything by the book there. Is he cutting trees, poaching, or doing drugs?”

“Nope.”

“Then what?”

“He’s with someone…”

“What’s so odd about that, Cody?”

“Well, his note said he was alone. And…she, I think it’s a she anyway…is blue,” said his partner.

Jack spun and took the binoculars from Cody. Since they were still on a strap around his partner’s neck, Jack nearly throttled Cody in the attempt. “Holy Saint Christopher!”

Cody untangled his neck from the strap and rubbed the red marks.

“Aliens!” gasped Jack.

“I think we gotta call somebody,” said Cody.

“Who?”

“Well, the district office for starters,” suggested Cody.

“Shouldn’t we keep an eye on them?”

“That’s why we carry these cell phones and radios, Jack,” said Cody patiently.

“And what if they leave in the meantime?”

“We follow them.”

“Wait a minute. Everyone back at the office is going to think we’re nuts.” Jack grabbed Cody’s arm. “My brother was in the service. In security. We watched that show they had on TV and he told me he and his buddies used to pray they wouldn’t be the ones on shift if a UFO or anything ever showed up. Those guys are never heard from again. The government just sweeps them up under the rugs…they never see their family, or girlfriends, or anything…ever.”

Cody rolled his eyes. “Right, and you believe that? Don’t tell me you believe
X-files
too, right?”

Jack nodded. “My brother was serious. He had a buddy once—”

Cody stopped him with his hand. “Okay, okay. I believe you. But what do you suggest? It’s our duty.” Cody looked uncertain now. “Look, there aren’t any laws about extraterrestrials visiting national forest lands, are there?”

“Damned if I know. They never covered alien attackers in Ranger 101.” Jack’s voice was thick with sarcasm.

“And they’re not doing anything illegal,” added Cody. “Well, I don’t suppose, if that is an alien, that it has legal immigration papers or a passport, in which case we’d have to—”

“Don’t go there,” warned Jack, rubbing the lenses of the binoculars. “Maybe it’s just a trick of the light. Maybe she fell into the water and is blue because of hypothermia. Maybe it’s makeup for a movie or something.”

“A movie? We would have heard about it. They would be a whole lot more than just two of ‘em down there. Besides they’d need permits for something like that.”

“Maybe it’s not a
legal
movie.” Jack sent his partner a sideways glance.

“What we need to do is get closer and make sure. Damn it, we should just walk down there and…”

“And introduce ourselves, and get vaporized? Maybe we should just forget we saw anything.”

Jack narrowed his eyes at his partner. “Look, maybe that guy is in trouble. He’s limping. Maybe he needs help.”

“Damn it, Jack, you saw that movie, what was it called? Something about the Fourth of July. The one about the alien invasion. And all fiction aside, even if they are both human you know there’s folk hiding out all over this state growing marijuana and gosh knows what else on Federal land. I’m not going down there unarmed—if at all.” Cody took a couple of steps back. “And if it is aliens, we have to get people who know how to handle that.”

“Maybe we can make an anonymous report,” said Jack.

“And just who are we gonna tell?”

“ETIS,” said Jack after a long pause. “You know, Extraterrestrial Intelligence Search. They’re not connected with the government. That’d be better than looking like a couple of idiots back at the district office.”

Cody had his phone out and dialed information.

* * * * *

POVRE WAS HOLDING OUT
a handful of fuzzy gray-blue berries and trying to explain to K’nt that they were good to eat, at least for her, as well as numerous small animals and birds—some of the same he’d shown her in his drawings. She wanted to know his words for them. Then it happened. Her race, not far removed from hunter-gatherer primitives living in trees, retained much of the instincts possessed by less advanced lifeforms.

Her ears went flat against her skull. Her vision blurred for a second as it augmented into its natural infrared range, which was induced otherwise only by focused concentration. The hairs on her body from nape to seat stood on edge. Her body went on instinctive alert, thousands of odors becoming sharp, clear, almost like sounds in her nose, colors in her mind’s eye.