The Arrival (17 page)

Pulling out a few sheets, she said, “Tell
him.”

A little nervous and somewhat lost for
words, I summoned the courage to explain to him exactly what was happening and
convince him to help us. I eased to the chair. “Look, Nidus isn’t what you
think it is, and it’s been hell on us.”

“You got that right,” Kate blurted and
then blew her nose.

“I can only imagine.” He offered a nod
of understanding or mock salute—I wasn’t sure which. “But think of the all the
benefits people receive in return for your dedication and sacrifice.”

“Yes, sir.” I sat up straight, gaining
more confidence. “I’m fully aware of what the Eslites have agreed to give us in
exchange for our eggs. But what you don’t know is what else they are doing to
us.”

“I beg your pardon?” He flinched. “Like
what?”

I rolled my shoulders. “Have you ever
heard of genetic modification?”

“Yes, I have.” He shifted. “However, I’m
not entirely familiar with the process.”

“I don’t have the details, either. What
I do know is that they are injecting many, if not all, of us with altered
genetic encoding.”

“Are you sure?” He appeared skeptical.

“Yes, sir.” I cleared my throat. “They
are trying to change our eggs to be like them.”

 “That sounds pretty far-fetched.” He
frowned. “How do you know this?”

“I received the information firsthand.”
I paused and carefully considered my words, because I didn’t want to mention
Dr. Ridus by name. We had to protect him at all cost. “Our information is
credible, from someone on the inside, so you have to believe us.”

Kate nodded. “I heard it too, Uncle
Wes.”

“They want us to produce superior
offspring in their form.” I swallowed hard and prayed he believed me. “They
want our babies to be one-hundred-percent Eslite.”

“Now wait just a minute.” He inched forward
and rested his elbows on the desk. “Can you say that again?”

“The Eslites are conducting genetic
modification on us, not only putting our lives at risk, but also permanently
altering our eggs.” I grasped his wrist. “That means our children will be
Eslite—not human.”

“Let me make sure I understand what you
are saying.”  He covered my hand with his. “They are genetically modifying most
if not all the females at Nidus. In the end, it will impact the human race because
once these females are released into the general population, their future
children will not be humans, but Eslites?”

“You got it.” I nodded, relieved that he
finally comprehended my message. “But that’s not all.”

With an expression of complete shock, he
asked, “There’s more?”

“Yes.” I sighed. “The genetic
modification is high-risk. It’s extremely dangerous, or at least that is my
understanding.”

“How so?”

My heart sank, and in the back of my
mind Aliah’s voice echoed, pleading and begging for help. In a way, her memory
reminded me that, for the girls at Nidus and the human race, we were their only
hope of survival. If we were to succeed, we needed the senator on our side.
“Ten girls died this week, and I have a feeling there will be more if we don’t
do something.”

“Hold on.” The senator coughed. “I
haven’t heard about anyone dying.”

“Of course you haven’t.” I snorted. “Do
you think they are going to make that public news? Can you imagine the uproar
that would cause?”

“Oh, it would spell the end of the
program.” He drew a handkerchief from his coat pocket and wiped his brow. “But
I have to be honest, Miranda. They explained that some females could die from
complications, which is normal with any medical procedure. They also reassured
us that the required testing would minimize casualties to less than two
percent. Don’t get me wrong, the loss of those girls is horrible, but that may
be the two percent, which is written in the agreement.”

“Maybe.” I reminded myself the man was a
politician, and he argued for a living. I had to convince him I was telling the
truth.

“Sir, I know for a fact those ten girls
underwent genetic modification. And if we don’t do something about it, more
girls will die. Maybe Kate. Maybe me. Who knows?”

“Please, Uncle Wes, I don’t want to
die,” Kate pleaded.

“Look, at least six-hundred girls, if
not more, have been at Nidus for the past nine months.” I counted each
successive point on my fingers. “They promised no more than three egg
extractions, and all of us have had two, if not three, already. But they won’t
release us. They are clearly violating the agreement. They should’ve let us go
by now.”

“You’re right.” The senator pressed a
fist to his mouth. “I had no idea so many girls have been there for that long.
This is the first time I’ve heard of it.”

“Senator, I know you don’t have any
daughters, so it’s hard for you to relate.” I perched on the edge of my seat.
“But I do know that you have two sons. Have you never dreamed of being a
grandfather? Did that dream include alien grandchildren?”

For a long while, he simply sat there
and stared out the window. “What is it that you actually want me to do?  Why
not go to the authorities?”

“Sir, Eslite guards are posted in every
police station.  Do you really expect them to help us rebel against their own
kind?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I hadn’t
thought of that. But what can I do?”

“You can petition to renegotiate terms
with the Eslites. You can expose their violations in Congress.” Kate grabbed my
hand, and I gathered strength from her unspoken support. “Senator, if the order
stands, the human race, well—there might not be a human race in the future.”

He looked like he was about to puke. I
kind of felt sorry for the guy. We had dumped a bomb on him the day before his
vacation. Not great timing on our part. Then again, we didn’t have much of a
choice or say when it came to the Eslites and Nidus. 

“Girls, I want to you help you. Believe
me, I do.” He scratched his temple. “But we need evidence to convince people of
what is taking place at Nidus. And my fellow politicians, much less the news
media, won’t take my word or yours, alone. They’ll require proof.”

My heart sank to the bottom of my
stomach.

Proof.

Of course we needed evidence.
Damn
it, why didn’t I think of that?
“I understand.” 

I allowed my thoughts to wander, as I
considered how to get the necessary documentation. Calling on Dr. Ridus seemed
too risky. If I contacted him, not only would they find out he had been helping
us, but also they’d pick up our butts and return us to Nidus. Even though I
wasn’t ready to go back, I had to get that information. But how would I get it
to the senator without tipping off the Eslites?

“You want proof?” Kate snatched her
backpack from the floor, unzipped it with a flick of her wrist, and flipped it
over, dumping a load of letters atop his desk. “Here’s your proof, Uncle Wes.”

“What the hell is all this?”  He ran his
fingers through the stack.

“Well they’re not letters to Santa,” I
replied.

“They’re from the girls at Nidus.” She
grabbed a handful of the folded squares. A mountain of tears, pleas, and hopes
rained from her grasp. “Explaining what’s been happening and begging for
someone to help us.”

“Proof,” I said with a sly grin. “Now do
you see how serious the situation is, Sir?”  If that didn’t sway him nothing
would. “We aren’t making this up.”

He flipped through a few of the letters.

“Go ahead and read them. We did.” I
reached for Kate’s hand, and she clutched mine. “We read each and every one of
them. We listened to their complaints, their hurts, their pains, their torment,
and most of all their begging for someone to please help them.” I grasped a
letter, covered with flags. “See this one?” I picked up another. “And this
one?”

He took it from my hand and opened it. A
big US flag in red, white, and blue dominated the sheet. “The Stars and
Stripes,” he whispered with a half-smile.

“What happened to our great nation? A
country founded on the promise of liberty and justice for all?  Nowhere is it
written,
‘unless aliens invade the planet’
.”

“Kate, Miranda—this is very touching.”
He thumbed through a few more notes, but that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted
him to say he would help us—all of us. Help our nation take back its freedom
from the Eslites. “I will read these letters. They will serve as excellent
proof of what our girls endure, but we still need substantial, credible facts.”

Oh, my God.
He
was almost as tough as Dad but compassion loomed in his gaze. Unlike Dad, he
had a soft spot, and I was going for it.

In that moment, I glimpsed a framed
document, hanging on the wall. “I see you have a copy of the Declaration of
Independence.”

“Well, yes of course.” He cast me a
quizzical glance.

“What does it mean to you?”

“You are very clever, young lady.” His
expression sobered. “It affirms that we are created equal, and we have the
right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

“Exactly.”  I clapped my hands once,
startling both of them. I paced, recalling the words that I had memorized since
I was a child. “And what are we, as citizens, supposed to do when those rights
have been violated?”

Kate frowned.

“I know where you are going with this,
Miranda.” The senator rubbed the back of his neck and his forehead crinkled.
“But it’s not that easy to convince people that our government has failed to
protect us.”

“Okay, so we need to show them the
truth. Do you think any father is going to willingly allow the Eslites to turn
his daughter into an alien, much less kill her in the process? How long do you
think parents will stand by as their children are tortured with hormone
injections and risky egg extractions, just so we can save their race while
destroying our own?”

“Not likely,” he said with grim
finality.

With hands on my hips, I took a deep
breath. “Better yet, twenty-five or thirty years from now, how great will our
nation be, if it survives, when our alien children, our Eslite babies, sit in
office and rule this country? It probably won’t even be the United States anymore.
With the genetic modification, Kate and I will become aliens, ourselves, and we
will breed more Eslites. They are destroying an entire generation.  The world
will be filled with their offspring, and the human race will cease to exist.”

“Miranda, we’re in a serious mess.” Perspiration
dotted his temples, and he dragged his coat sleeve across his face. “And the
solution isn’t as easy as you think.”

“I know it’s not.” I looked him straight
in the eye. “If you had any idea what Kate and I did to get here without them
tracking us, your head would spin.”

 “Please, spare me the details for now.”
He held up his hand. “It’s better if I don’t know. But like I said, we—I am
going to need evidence that shows what they are doing to the girls.”

“I understand.” I nodded. “What kind of
evidence do you want?”

He speared his fingers through his hair.
“Medical documentation for one.”

“Are you kidding?” Kate sighed. “Uncle
Wes, we can’t get that sort of information.”

“Well, I’m going to need it. I’ll need
proof of the genetic modification, the cause of deaths, and the hormone
treatments. Anything you can provide me to make our case.”

“Gee.” Kate turned to me and asked, “How
are we going to manage that?”

I winked and smiled. “I guess I’ll have
to find a way, Senator.”

“Listen, it isn’t worth risking your
life,” he cautioned.

“Sir, my life’s already at risk.”

“All right, but you must be careful.” He
peered at Kate. “Both of you. If you think you can access the data, and pass it
to me without the Eslites’ knowledge, then I will do my part.”

“I appreciate that, Senator. I’ll figure
out something. Thank you again for your time.” I picked up my backpack. “Kate
and I will be in touch.”

“No problem, Miranda,” the senator
replied. “Kate, I think it’s best if we keep this to ourselves. I won’t mention
it to your dad, unless you want me to.”

“No.” She stood and pulled down the
bottom of her shirt. “Let’s keep him out of this for now. Besides, I’m headed
home.” She gathered her backpack and handed him a piece a paper. “Oh, and after
you read the letters, here’s the list of addresses where you need to send
them.”

He accepted the sheet and studied it.
“Okay.”

“We scribbled a name in pencil on each
letter so we would know who to send it to.” She pointed to one example. “They
should correspond to the list of names.”

“I’ll have Martha mail these once I’m
done.”

“Thank you, Uncle Wes.”

With heads held high we walked to the
door.

“Girls?” the senator called.

We stopped and turned. “Yes, sir?” we
replied in unison.