Strangers & Milliseconds (AU,CC,MATURE) COMPLETE - 9/14/13

Finished stories set in an alternate universe to that introduced in the show, or which alter events from the show significantly, but which include the Roswell characters. Aliens play a role in these fics. All complete stories on the main AU with Aliens board will eventually be moved here.

Moderators: Anniepoo98, Rowedog, ISLANDGIRL5, Itzstacie, truelovepooh, FSU/MSW-94, Hunter, Island Breeze, Forum Moderators

User avatar
ken_r
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 861
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:34 pm
Location: New Mexico

Re: Strangers & Milliseconds CC,mature, ch20 pg9 June 16, 20

Post by ken_r »

begonia9508: Nasedo is making a lot of stupid mistakes because he is getting scared. He isn't sure about Max's [ower, nor is he sure about Liz. He is trying to hurry and that is costing him.

L-J-L 76: See comment above. Nasedo is making mistakes.

keepsmiling7: disposal is coming soon


Chapter 21

At Nasedo’s apartment.

Max would be unconscious for some time. Nasedo took some of the serum he had stolen from the Special Unit long ago. They had used it to subdue those like him. He gave the king a healthy injection. He fervently hoped this didn’t kill the king. He had a job for him soon.

With Max on ice, so to speak, Nasedo went looking for Tess.

At Tess and Kyle’s apartment.

Tess had been uneasy all morning. She couldn’t tell what was wrong, but she was worried. “Hey, babe, I will make a run to the store and be back in an hour,” Kyle called. He knew that Tess was upset and he wanted to be back with her as soon as possible. Tess heard the knock at the door. She had a terrible premonition, but she had been having them all morning. She thought something was going to happen when she got out of bed. She thought the same thing when she took her shower. This time wasn’t any different. She was like a fire alarm which went off, over and over so that it no longer gave any alarm. Tess opened the door and Nasedo stepped in the doorway and soundly slapped her. Tess went rolling on the floor. She was starting to get up when Nasedo unleashed a power blast which rendered her unconscious. Soon, Tess was fastened like Max at Nasedo’s apartment.

University lunchroom

Liz picked up her salad and walked to the window where she habitually sat. Two people were already there. Liz almost dropped her tray when she saw that one of them was Alex. She hoped that Isabel had cautioned him about knowing her.

“Hey, Liz, I brought my boyfriend with me today. Liz, meet Alex,” Isabel said.

Liz looked at Alex and saw that his lips were quivering with emotion. She wasn’t doing much better. She looked over to where two men in black were sitting. She saw they had set up the listening device, but they were not showing any concern about removing her from the two sitting there.

The slothful student on the far side of the lunchroom was speaking into his sleeve. “The Evans girl has arrived. She is with the Whitman man you told me about. There are two of the Major’s men sitting some distance from them. They have a listening device in front of them, I am sure,” he stated.

Liz held out her hand to Alex. “I am happy to meet you Alex. Have you and Isabel been together long?” she asked. Liz and Maria had long tried to fix Alex up with girls. He seemed to have done pretty well on his own.

“Yes, Mrs. Mendoza,” Alex replied. “Isabel and I have been together for almost a year now.” Alex, also, remembered the times Liz and Maria had worried about his social life.

“Did you have a good morning?” Isabel asked Liz.

“Yes, I got almost all my chores done. I will return home after lunch,” Liz replied.

They chatted like three casual friends until, suddenly, the two men in black stood up. “Mrs. Mendoza there is trouble at the house. We have to go,” they stated. Then, turning to Isabel and Alex, “We are sorry, there has been an emergency. Mrs. Mendoza may be in danger. I hope you understand. Mrs. Mendoza gets to talk with so few people, we wouldn’t interfere unless there was truly an emergency.”

With that, they quickly left.

The student suddenly sat up. “Something just happened. The men in black are taking the woman, Liz, out of here. They are scared of something. They are not even trying to hide the fact they are carrying pistols on campus.”

Alex looked at Isabel. She waited until they saw the men with Liz leave. “Come on Alex, we have to get to that book to see if Liz left a message. Maybe, they found it,” she worriedly said.

“I don’t think so, Izzy. They kept saying there was an emergency at home. I agree we need to get to the book as soon as possible,” Alex replied.

They almost ran to the library. Quickly taking the narrow stairs, because Isabel didn’t want to wait for the elevator, they found the book, message and digital card. All Isabel could think of was getting to Maria. She was the only other person who knew what was happening.

Maria took them to Michael. He had a computer at his office. Alex had one of those charms on his key chain which would run digital cards on USB ports of any computer. They opened the file. There was a word document which, when opened, turned out to be a copy of Max’s diary. Alex burned this to a disk. Then, they looked at the second file. It was a PDF file, which turned out to be made up of scans. Max had carefully scanned his notes from the research and saved them into an ‘Adobe Acrobat’ file that almost any computer could read. They would go over the diary tonight. They couldn’t make heads or tails of the notes on Max’s research. Michael spoke up, “I met a guy. He is a professor of biology. We might, at least, ask him what this is about.”

Professor Albert Simms had met Michael once over a pitcher of beer. He had enjoyed Michael’s company, but finals had just been taken and he had to get them graded. “Come on, Albert, just take a look. We don’t know what we have,” Michael pleaded.

Albert sighed, he would never get those damned papers done now. Albert enjoyed research. He even enjoyed teaching and working with his students. He didn’t enjoy grading papers. He tried to do this grading the first thing and get it out of the way. Now, some causal friend wanted him to look at some amateur research and tell what it was about. At first, Albert had his worst fears. The author was researching hybrids. The description of his lab was a make shift unit in a garage. Albert knew all about mules, ligers and several other near species hybrids. He knew they were all sterile. Then, he saw with some interest about the house cat bread with the asian wild cat where sterility, at least among females, was spotty. He read about the generations until you had a stable hybrid. That was mildly interesting. Who in the hell wanted a Bengal cat? http://www.google.com/images?client=saf ... CCoQsAQwAA

Then Albert saw the author was talking about something else all together. The author was talking about hybrid humans. Albert called out, “George, get in here.” When George, Albert’s assistant, poked his head in the office, Albert handed him the rolls of finals. “George, get these graded as soon as possible. Then, get back here. We have some serious research to study.”

Albert turned to the four people standing in his office. “I want this author,” he stated.

Michael shrugged, “We don’t know if that is possible.”

“Mike, if he isn’t dead, I want to talk to him. We are talking Nobel Prize here,” Albert demanded. “We need to get him into a real lab. He needs support and real equipment.”

“That is just it, Albert, he was being held for reasons unknown, probably by the government. Something happened this afternoon in the Student Union Building and the officials took off. There was some sort of emergency. We were hoping this would explain some of what is happening,” Michael told him.

Albert sighed, “Mike, try to find him. This may be the find of the millennium. He is explaining how species change and merge.”

Except that Max made the find of the millennium, they now knew nothing more. Maria turned to Isabel, “What about dream walking? That seems to be all that is left now.”

Isabel could try. She preferred to do that in the evening when she and everyone around her were calm.

In one of the biggest banks on the east coast.

He walked into his office and locked the door. Suit took out a key and opened a locked drawer. He punched a few buttons in the drawer.

Cuban cigar had almost bitten through his stogie. These kids thought they all wanted to be boxers. Maybe, one out of a hundred would have any talent. He had to winnow through the rest looking for that one. His phone rang and his secretary called him. Cigar picked up the phone and heard, “Line 13, please.”

Cigar hung up the phone and turned to the people in the gym. “Fellows, work out for a while. I gotta take care of something.” He went into his office and locked the door. From his desk, he opened a locked drawer. He punched two buttons inside that drawer.

Polo shirt was lecturing. He was an excellent lecturer. Students took his class when they didn’t even like history. When he taught the Mexican-American war of 1846, he went back to the history of Texas. He told of the Hispanics who lost their lives fighting against Santa Anna in the Alamo. The final solution when the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed was a story about freedom. Whether you agreed with him or not he was so much better than the ‘History Channel.’

One of his graduate assistants stuck her head in the lecture hall. “Hey Doc, there is an emergency message to call Station 13, immediately,” she called out.

Polo Shirt motioned for the grad assistant to come in. He whispered something and as he was leaving he heard, “Did you ever hear about the survivors of the Alamo? Well, there was this one man, his name was Big Foot Wallace. The professor did not hear anymore of the story. The grad student would do well. She had studied under Polo Shirt; of course she knew him by his real name. She would tell history like a narrative. Not like so many students had learned history for years. Now, Polo Shirt had to see what the consortium wanted. Suit had never made a call like this except for something Earth shaking. In his office, he like wise, unlocked a drawer. Two buttons and he found himself in a tele-conference.

“Someone put the snatch on the man the Major was guarding. It sounds like players working with the bald man. All we know is, it wasn’t us. We know that there is a witness loose. The witness knows something or the Major wouldn’t be spending so much money caring for him. If he is anything like the woman, the witness may be a power himself. If he is a nobody, we want him dead. If he has value to us, we want him captured. We want to keep him away from the Major and we do not want third parties to use him if he has power. I have five troopers on a jet bound for New Mexico. Keep in touch. I will post information as I get it.”

The computer screen went blank. The other two members could only shake their heads. Was their power, so carefully crafted, being threatened? If so, there was a lot at risk.

Back at the safe house.

Liz was taken to a room. The room had five men all carrying automatic weapons standing around her. Liz knew that every thing going on in the room was about her, but no one saw fit to consult her about what she might know or what she might think.

Two men lay on the floor dead. They had been badly burned in the chest area only. Liz felt badly, one of the men was the man who had seemed to care about her. He was the man who went to the library when she was taken out of the car accident. Also, she was sure he was the man who gave her the newspaper. That article was so shocking and yet, so liberating. That was when her life with Max had really started.

The apartment shared by Kyle and Tess

Kyle called out, “Hey, Tess, they were all out of the shampoo you wanted.”

There was no answer, so Kyle placed the bag of groceries on the floor. Looking about, he saw a faint charring of the floor. The outline of the charred region was that of a body. Tess had explained a little about her powers and the powers of others like her. It didn’t take much imagination to believe that someone had taken Tess. She knew them because she didn’t put up much fight. Kyle’s first thought was that shape shifter she talked about, Nasedo. He placed a phone call to the sheriff of Roswell, his father.

“Hey, Pop, no codes, no secrets, I don’t care if this phone is tapped. You know that I have been living with this alien girl. No, Pop, not that kind of alien. She is not from across the southern border, she is from above. You know, like gramps used to talk about. She has been kidnapped. I need to know everything you remember Gramps saying about aliens. I also need to know about that shape-shifting critter he mentioned. No, I don’t think it was the government unit who took her. She was definitely afraid of that shape-shifter. No, don’t bother coming up here. There isn’t time for that. I got gramp’s 45 and his old shotgun. I am going after her. Pop, alien or not, I really like her,” Kyle concluded his conversation with his father.
Last edited by ken_r on Sun Jun 30, 2013 1:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.

Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
User avatar
ken_r
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 861
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:34 pm
Location: New Mexico

Re: Strangers & Milliseconds CC,mature, ch21 pg9 June,24, 20

Post by ken_r »

begonia9508: The story can best be understood by realizing that everyone here is acting in their own interest. The major and the three mysterious men all want personal power and wealth. Nasedo wants power from Kivar. All of the Roswell group want is to live out their lives in safety.

L-J-L 76: All through the series Isabel's mental powers meant knowing who she was contacting. Getting close to Max and Liz allows the dream walks. Remember that Kyle is out there without any protection or power.

keepsmiling7:


Chapter 22

That night in the apartment shared by Isabel and Alex.

Isabel was wearing her favorite red lounge pajamas. Alex would have preferred her in that Victoria’s Secret negligee, but tonight she had to be all business. It was almost 10:00 that evening when she finally made her first contact. It was Max. He was incoherent, but she got as much information as he had. Max had been taken, apparently by the bald man, Tess had called Nasedo. He had no idea where he was. Tess was in the room with him. They were both secured by some force to their beds. Max thought Tess might know more than he did. He had just met Tess and realized she was the fourth alien. With a mental pop, Isabel woke up.

Isabel’s work was not over. It was just beginning. Usually, she made only one or two dream-walks an evening. Tonight, she had no idea how many it would take. Dream-walks meant she knew the person well enough to call up their dream. With Max, it had been easy. Isabel was now thinking of Liz. She had found Liz because she had so much of Max in her. The transfusion had done many things to Liz. Isabel wasn’t sure of all of them, yet. Isabel didn’t know Tess very well so she had to think up all she knew about the woman. Once again, she saw the dream of Max. It was colored a dirty brown. Max was clearly in distress. She was sure he didn’t have anything more to tell her so she stepped aside as his dream came by. Some distance behind Max’s dream, Isabel saw a dim very ill defined dream. She took a chance and stepped into the dream. She had been lucky, it was that of Tess.

At first, Tess was frightened. She had tried to send signals for many years trying to find the king and any other aliens, before Nasedo did. Now, she had a powerful practiced vision in her dream. She finally settled down enough to recognize it as Isabel, the alien she had met a short time before. Nasedo had not disabled her conscious as much as he had that of Max. Nasedo believed he had her under control. Nasedo didn’t fear Tess, he clearly did fear Max.

“Tess,” Isabel spoke in Tess’s dream. “Do you have any idea where you are held?”

Tess answered, “Isabel, I think we are somewhere south of the university. If you were closer, I could give you better directions,” Tess answered in her dream.

“I am sorry Tess, I should have asked how you were,” Isabel apologized.

“I am fine, for now. Nasedo has us like he wants us. I am sure as soon as he can, he will force us to mate. I don’t know how long it will take me to get pregnant. When I am, Max’s life is not worth much. You should watch out. Nasedo wants to take you back with him, to Kivar. I imagine he will concentrate on us until I become pregnant. He will prepare to go back to Antar. Then, to kidnap you and to kill Michael are the final actions he is commanded to perform.” Tess had now, told Isabel as much as she knew. It would be up to Isabel how she used that information.

At the apartment shared by Michael and Maria.

There was a pounding on their door. Michael was in shorts as he answered. He was very careful, one never knew who would be at the door this time at night. His hands were sparking in preparation for a fight.

Standing at the door was Isabel and Alex. Isabel was in slacks with a light jacket. “Put some clothes on Michael. We got big problems,” she stated.

Maria was up and dressed in a robe. Michael came into the room now, dressed in slacks, a shirt and loafers. “What is up, to wake us this late at night?” he asked.

“Nasedo has Max and Tess. He is trying to breed them. When he is successful, his next act is to kidnap me and to kill you. We need to do something. I don’t know what, yet,” Isabel explained.

Michael stood up. “I think we need to get closer to Tess. Then, we need to access the situation,” he said as he was ready to walk out into night.

“Wait, Michael,” Maria called. “Let me get dressed.”

“No, Maria, Isabel and I are alien. We have powers. If you are with us, I have to spend all my time protecting you. I need to focus on this Nasedo character,” Michael commanded. This was not like the way he usually faced Maria. Now, he didn’t have time to be reasonable. It was up to her to use common sense.

They were all in Alex’s rental car except for Maria. She was mad and Michael would have to mend many fences when he returned. Alex drove across the town until he was south of the vast campus of the university. They parked under a tree in the dark and Isabel sat as she searched for either Tess or Max. This time, when Tess’s dream came by it was better defined. Isabel was becoming better tuned to her. “You are close, Isabel. I don’t know how we can define our location better.”

“We are sitting under a tree, Tess. This is a neighborhood with maybe 50 houses. We can’t kick in each door until we fiind the right one. At least we can’t do that yet,” Isabel explained.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Isabel. Nasedo told us to sleep. Tomorrow, he expects us to mate. I don’t know what force he will put on us. A successful mating will guarantee my imprisonment, but it will guarantee Max’s death. Maybe not immediately, but if Nasedo takes us to Antar, Max will face a public execution. Nasedo hasn’t mentioned you, but I am sure he will start a search for you and Michael as soon as he is sure he had an heir to the king in me,” The dream of Tess was wobbly indicating her condition. This was what she had feared since Nasedo had explained her purpose in his plans.

Back at the safe house.

Liz was watching. The whole group was in turmoil. She got the idea that they were waiting for the Major to arrive. While no one was paying any attention to her, Liz closed her eyes and thought of Max. She seemed to sleep. As Liz became more and more drowsy, images of Max formed in her mind. The images were shaky and she couldn’t make them stay in focus. The noise of the men around her became a background against which Max drifted in and out along with images of Isabel and Tess.

“Tess,” that was someone she should lock on to. How did Liz even know Tess. Liz had never met her. Liz had never even heard that name before. Tess was looking right at Liz. Liz couldn’t hear anything except for the background noise. Watching Tess, Liz could see her lips moving. “Look for us,” the silent lips seemed to say. Suddenly, Tess and Max both disappeared. They were replaced, as Liz dozed, with Isabel. Isabel was looking at Liz. Liz could hear her with perfect clarity, “Max and Tess are being held somewhere in a house, south of the university,” The dream said.

Liz’s eyes popped opened. The Major hadn’t arrived, yet. They were arguing with each other, mainly because no one was there to lead. “Excuse me,” Liz said. No one paid her the least bit of attention. “Excuse me, guys!” Liz shouted.

For a brief millisecond the strangers all looked at Liz. It was as if they had seen that she was with them for the first time. The Major had always insisted that they not get close to Liz or Max. They knew that they both must be terminated if the Major decided he no longer needed them. “Guys, Max is being held by the bald man somewhere south of the university,” Liz told them.

Liz had never been allowed to know any of their names. They all tried to talk at once. Half of them were incredulous and the other half were asking if Liz had planned this escape with Max. If she had been helping Max escape, why would she have told them where she thought Max was? They all surrounded Liz glaring at her. It was truly the most frightening time Liz had experienced since she had become Mrs. Mendoza.

At the city Airport.

Five men got off the private plane. They were all carrying duffel bags and were wearing black pull over sweaters and slacks. Out of the darkness walked a student. He looked like a student; he hadn’t shaved recently and he was carrying a book bag on his back. “We need to hurry. I can show where they all are. The Major is due in anytime. He lost two men and now the woman is sitting with the full group of the Major’s remaining guards,” the student said.

At Kyle’s apartment.

Kyle felt a bit better after talking to his father. He saw no reason to get his dad involved. Kyle intended to try to find Tess. To find her quickly, Kyle might need to do some things that might not look legal to a law enforcement officer. Kyle had been getting stronger and stronger feelings about Tess. Kyle wasn’t a psychic. Kyle didn’t even believe in psychics. Kyle did believe in what he saw in Tess. Kyle also, believed that if that bastard Nasedo was involved, he was one alien that should never make it back to home planet. Carrying his grandfather’s 45 and several magazines of ammunition, Kyle went out to the truck which had brought them to the city from Roswell. He slid the old shotgun behind the front seat and started driving. He didn’t know where he was going, but he would know when he got there. Tess would be in his arms. Maybe, Nasedo would be just dust in the wind.

Back at the safe house. The Major has just arrived

As he strode into the house, the Major had no idea that just a short distance away, six of the assassins were huddled listening to the bugs they had placed in the safe house. All of the Major’s guards were standing in a circle looking at the frightened Liz Mendoza. “She claims she has a special connection with the man and knows about where he is. If she is lying then, maybe, she was trying to escape with him and she is caught. She might give him up to save herself,” one of the lieutenants stated.

The Major stood there looking at Liz. This was so unlike him. Usually, the Major was not indecisive. He knew what he was going to do and nobody stood in his way. “So you know where Mr. Mendoza is being held?” the Major asked. “Tell us where he is!” He commanded.

Liz was so frightened that she could barely talk. Always, when they were dealing with the men in black, it had been Max who understood what was going to happen. “I know that he is somewhere south of the university. I have to be closer to pin point his exact position,” Liz declared.

The Major glared. “Does that mean you have friends who will attack and try to free you when we got near there? Just tell us why you have this connection with a man, you had never met two years ago.” the Major demanded.

Liz had no intention of saying the alien word. So she lied. “Max is a psychic. All these experiments, are him trying to find out why he can do certain things. He was trying to teach me psychic things, but I only have learned to feel when he is near. I am sure he is south of the university. If I was closer, I might know exactly where he is,” she explained.

“Why would you tell us?” the Major asked.

“You are our protectors. It is the bad people who assassinated the senator, you are protecting us from. You are Max’s only hope,” she stated.

The Major stood there looking at her. Was she that naïve? He was sure that Max understood that they might not ever be allowed to live. What happened to them depended on what was found out about the assassinations. The Major had offered to trade them to the assassins for certain considerations. He had no delusions about what would happen to them if he did. “Get her ready. Let’s move out. We have to get that man before the other players learn too much,” he ordered.

Like many powerful men, the Major, had his superstitions. He truly believed that he was above lesser men. He had been blessed with a destiny. The Major believed that certain men through history had abilities above the norm. Now, fate had handed him a couple who were developing psychic powers. If Liz had mentioned aliens, the Major would have ignored her as a nut. As some one who was developing special psychic powers, she was a perfectly reasonable development.
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.

Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
User avatar
ken_r
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 861
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:34 pm
Location: New Mexico

Re: Strangers & Milliseconds CC,mature, ch22 pg9 June,30, 20

Post by ken_r »

begonia9508: Sometimes when a bunch of people want to kill you, you can redirect their killing urge to each other. Spying is getting like it must have been with the KGB in Russia here.

Natalie36: yes many twists and turns, From "Dune" circles within circles.

keepsmiling7: If they won't accept the truth, find a lie that they will accept

L-J-L 76: you are about to find out what happens when they all find each other.



Chapter 23

The battle of the five armies

This was right out of Tolkein. The Major was trying to figure out what he was going to do about Liz. The assassins were stalking the Major and his men. The alien Hybrids, Michael and Isabel, along with the human, Alex were trying to figure out exactly where Nasedo was holding their king, Max along with the queen, Tess. They wanted to free the king and prevent Tess from carrying his child. There was Kyle who could only think that his grandfather had searched for aliens all his life. Now Kyle had found one. What an alien she was! Kyle could only hope that gramps would understand that Kyle had no desire to destroy this alien. She meant too much to him. Then, there was the fifth character. He was the target of the other four. Nasedo was thinking that he was well on his way back home. Throw the beaten body of the king before Kivar to destroy at his pleasure, present the despot with the toy, Isabel, who he had already killed once and finally, offer Kivar the one thing which would make his rule legitimate. Hand over the pregnant Tess, who, after DNA testing could be proven to be carrying the heir of the king. The boy who Kivar would protect as his regent. At least until Kivar had solidified his rein and declared himself not regent, but emperor.

There had been a lot of loud fraternity parties in this neighborhood. They were nothing like what was fixing to happen.

They had been sitting in Alex’s car for several hours. Michael couldn’t stand it any longer. He had to go. He had no idea how Isabel was handling it. Maybe, she whiffed her bladder dry with alien magic or something. That had not been anything they had shared, yet. Alex would manage on his own, but Michael stood tall and proud as he let his stream flow on the euonymus. The bush had now been blessed. It had been watered by alien piss. Like any man, even an alien man, there was a warm sensation, almost erotic, when he allowed his natural needs to be taken. Michael, relaxing, sent off a aura of alien contentment.

Suddenly, Isabel sat up. “Isabel,” Tess called in her mind. “I just had a strong alien feeling. You are very near. Nasedo was driving a blue van. Look for it in a driveway.”

In a black extension camper van

Liz was surrounded by the Major and his men. “Look for a blue van,” she suggested. Two men silently slipped out of the camper and went both ways, along the residential street. Fifteen minutes later they returned. One of them pointed down the street. “About six houses down, the van is sitting in the driveway. We sneaked a peek in the windows. There is a blonde woman and our boy in one of the rooms. They appear to be asleep.”

Around the residential university neighborhood.

A black van was parked along the street. Two men got out and scouted the nearby streets. The rest of the commandos and the so-called student waited. When the scouts returned, they reported, “The focus is on a house just up the street. It has a blue van in the driveway. The Major sent two scouts to look in the windows. They returned excited. I am sure this is the place. All we can do is wait until something happens.

Kyle pulled up under a dark tree. In front, he saw two black vans. One of them was more like the crime investigation van of the city police, except that it was Black. Black vans, to Kyle, spoke of government men. Government men, he understood. In his mind, Kyle had a strong impression that Tess was near. She was saying that a strong alien force was near also. Men, Kyle could fight. Aliens, he would go down trying to face, but Kyle had doubts of his ability taking on, ‘out of this world.’

Kyle, of course, saw the sedan where Michael, Isabel and Alex waited. It was just a plain car. Kyle took no notice of it any more than did the scouts in the two vans. It was as if they were ‘veiled by some sort of magic.’

Morning at the City Police department.

When he wanted to, Polo Shirt could clean up real good. He was now dressed in a dark suit, one that would have rivaled his friend, the banker. The tousled hair of the professor was now carefully combed. The dark eyes, which his women students had dreams about were now safely in a contact lens case in his pocket. His natural eyes were of ice blue. He was a history teacher at the moment, but he had several other degrees. One was in operational psychology. He would have made an excellent salesman. Well, that is sort of what he was. He was selling the power of his group to the locals. Give them something to make them feel good and order them to say out of the way. “Here are my credentials. Of course, you will keep all of this confidential,” he stated as he handed a folder to the chief of the city police.

This man only answered to God and his organization. The chief was sure that the man thought they were the same thing. Even the president had to make appointments to talk to such as he. “I would appreciate it if you could keep your men away from this area for a day or so. We will contain the area and answer any questions you have later.” The dapper suited man handed the chief an unmarked box. The chief could smell the contents. He would open the Cuban cigars later in private. The man handed him two other boxes which were unwrapped. “You may convey our appreciation as you see fit,” he said. There was one other package that the man would present. The local sheriff didn’t smoke. There was a bottle of very fine cognac. None of the people he presented the presents to felt that they had been bribed. They all felt that they were being recognized for their cooperation. Psychology was a powerful thing. The professor left knowing that the children would stay out of the playground today. The grown-ups would be free to play.

Nasedo and his captives.

“Well, it is morning,” Nasedo observed. “Now, after breakfast, get to work mating,” he further commanded.

Tess glared at him. “It isn’t done that way. We need privacy. You are not going to be allowed to sit there and watch,” she stated.

“Why? You screwed those high school boys and you knew I was watching,” he said.

“You told me I was learning. I wasn’t trying to accomplish anything. It was better that I didn’t concentrate on any of them. You did not want any pregnancy then. Now, if we have to do it, we want privacy,” Tess demanded. Even Tess was surprised when Nasedo left to bring in a tray for breakfast and then, he left with a glare at her.

Tess sat there looking at Max. “I bought us a day of time, that is all. If we don’t do something, Nasedo will get angry and force us someway, to mate. I don’t know how he will do it, but it will not be pleasant,” she told Max.

Max was remembering his dream walk with Isabel. He had never seen this blonde woman in his life. True, she was beautiful. Max had fallen in love with Elizabeth Parker. He wasn’t in the mind to betray her; at least, in his eyes. “Exactly what does this person, Nasedo, want?” he asked.

“The plan is for you to get me pregnant. Then you will be executed. Sorry, but that will be the end of your duty. There is a man called Michael. He is to be killed as soon as Nasedo can find him. Your sister Isabel will be captured and taken back to Antar for the pleasure of Kivar. My life will exist as long as I care for the infant king, which you are to give me,” Tess explained.

“How am I to get you pregnant?” Max asked.

Tess shrugged. “The human way, I suppose. Nasedo made me study sex so I would be able to take from the king. The king is you. If we fail, then, Nasedo will come back. I have no idea what he will do,” Tess again explained. She had been raised with this. Tess realized that there were many things that would confuse Max.

“Can you fight Nasedo?” Max asked.

“I don’t know. My boyfriend says that I probably could. I just don’t believe I can,” Tess said. “There is one thing. If we can give them time, there are several groups who want to free us from Nasedo. I don’t know what they want to do with us after they remove Nasedo,” Tess said as an after thought.

When the students of the neighborhood got up that morning and saw the black vans, a lot of chemicals were flushed down the toilet. Many sat in fear waiting for what they were sure must be a drug bust. Calls to the police did no good. They were all answered that the police were aware of the vans and good citizens should just go about their business as usual.

It was daylight so Michael, Alex and Isabel took turns walking to a nearby fast food place to get breakfast and to use the bathrooms. Last night Kyle had made use of the bushes several times. Now, he also waited until he thought the streets were relatively empty and he went to one of the fast food places. He missed Isabel, Michael and Alex, so he still had no idea they were near. He did pass several commandos as they also took care of their necessities. The Major’s camper was self-contained. It could last for two more days before it needed to drop sewage and take on more water. The street was a busy place, with the normal student traffic and the mysterious strangers going back and forth. No one realized that the greatest mystery was that no one saw or remarked anything about the sedan where the hybrids and Alex were watching.
----------------------------
Stories by Ken
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.

Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
User avatar
ken_r
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 861
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:34 pm
Location: New Mexico

Re: Strangers & Milliseconds CC,mature, ch23 pg10, July 7 20

Post by ken_r »

keepsmiling7: Guess you will soon see.

begonia9508: Yes not thinking like an alien is both good and bad.

L-J-L 76: You are about to see how they are saved.


Chapter 24

Late afternoon in the house where Max, Tess and Nasedo were residing.

Nasedo came barreling into the room. First, he glared at Max and then at Tess. “Did you do the deed?” he screamed. Max just looked at him. How could anyone have decided to put him in the place of a caretaker? The royals of Antar must have been crazy. Max had been raised on Earth. He was raised at a time when slavery was relatively absent. Max did not have the concept of the years of resentment, which had built up in the slave that the queen mother had simply yanked by his arm and forced into the Granolith. The queen mother had no idea of under-persons even having the capacity for resentment. Generations of slave owners on any planet have never understood that what a slave desired most was freedom.

Nasedo grabbed Tess by the arm and slapped her so hard that she fell across the bed behind her. To Max, this was unacceptable. He stood up making known his protest. Nasedo spun around looking at the raging Max. He hit him with a power blast, that might have killed a human. Nasedo was not thinking at the moment. If Max hadn’t had the strength to withstand the blast he might have been killed ending the quest for an heir, before it even got started.

As sanity returned to Nasedo, he walked to the crumpled body of Max and checked him for signs of life. When he had assured himself that Max would live, Nasedo turned to the whimpering Tess lying on the bed. He slapped her again, eliciting a loud groan from Max, who still was not able to function. Nasedo tore the clothes from Tess. He in no way was a gynecologist, but he performed the examination of a gynecologist determining that Tess and Max hadn’t yet had sex.

Nasedo stood above Tess with his hands shaking in anger. Max was becoming lucid enough to see that Nasedo’s hands were sparking. Max heard Tess scream. It was almost as if Nasedo was killing her. Tess endured the pain, her screams seeming to come from some disassociated body. Maybe, this would be the time when Nasedo lost it. Maybe, this was the time of her death. There was no satisfaction in thwarting Nasedo, because Tess knew that if she died, the king would follow shortly. The only value either of them had to the servant, turned master, was in producing an heir.

The sparking between his fingers quit. Nasedo became calmer. He was now deeply breathing to bring this Earth-type body in to control. “There is tonight,” he stormed. Nasedo left and Max, finally, regained the strength to walk over to Tess. “He will never do that again,” Max promised her.

Tess’s face glowed as she healed her self. Then she was holding her stomach as she tried to bring her organs back into function. “Max, I understand your reluctance to give me the heir. You will be killed no matter what. If you refuse to yield your seed, then we both die. It won’t be any heroic deed to grant me just a few years of life. Kivar will kill me after the heir is grown, anyway,” Tess explained.

“Tess, I promise I will not allow Nasedo to do this again. Nasedo was a servant. The royals who sent him must have been much more powerful than he ever was to keep him as a slave. We are descended from the royals. We have to be more powerful than he is, especially if we agree to work together.”

In a dark place, in a dark room, in a dark building in a large city.

There were only two persons in the room. A computer was open before them. Suit and Cigar were sitting, looking at the image of Polo Shirt. He was not wearing his custom attire. Dressed in black with his brown contacts off, Polo Shirt had a report. “The Major wants to make us a deal. He says that what he has had all along, he didn’t understand. Now, he only has the woman. He does think that together we could retake the man, take the balding man and maybe even, another power. So far, he is sure there are at least six beings with para-normal powers. He wants our help capturing all of them. We can divide out the booty after things settle down. Major’s words, not mine, he says, ‘To hell with political control. With what these people have the whole world can be controlled,’” the man on the screen stated.

Suit looked at the screen, “Do you want to dicker with that bastard?”

The computer answered, “No, I don’t think I have a presence of power that will impress the Major. I would suggest our cigar-smoking friend. How fast could you get him here?

Suit spoke up. “I can have him there by military jet in a few hours. I take it that negations have to be concluded before morning?”

The computer was already agreeing as Cigar stood up and walked to a locker in the darkened room. From the locker, he took a duffle bag and started to dress in the necessary clothes. Suit was on the phone to one of those he controlled. A jet with pilot would be put at the disposal of a civilian within the hour.

In the Major’s war wagon

“I want three of you with me. Keep out of sight, but be ready to attack at a millisecond’s notice. We have in our grasp power that we never surmised. We break this mysterious cartel and we fill in the void. I am to meet with the chief honcho in a few hours,” the Major stated.

No one was paying any attention to Liz. She did see that if she tried to escape, this would change quickly. Liz closed her eyes, hoping to contact someone soon. It was very lonesome being alone and having no idea of what was happening.

In the house with Max and Tess. Nasedo was somewhere not far away.

Tess was quivering in Max’s arms. Max was thinking, could he make love to Tess? No, not like he loved Liz. Max had great concern for Tess like he would for any human in distress. Correction, make that Hybrid in distress. Max’s thoughts wondered. Did he make distinctions between Humans or hybrids? Max had been raised in a human world. The values given to him, along with his sister, were human values. In some way, were they more than just human values, were they values for the universe? “Tess, I can do it if you want. Giving you a child will buy you a few more years of life. Any years of life are not to be turned down lightly,” he said.

“Max, be assured that any death I face will be that of pain. Nadedo has entertained me with stories of how Kivar kills those he no longer has use for. Kivar has killed so many billions in his wars, that the only way he can enjoy death is to personally cause pain and terror. The question you should ask is, are you willing to die knowing that your son, flesh of your flesh, will grow to be a man just like Kivar.

Neither of them slept that night. Max held Tess and she continually sobbed. This was what she had been raised for. This was the millisecond she had dreaded for so long. The time they would spend thinking tonight would be hours. The time when they made a decision, either way, would be instantaneous

In Maris’s lonely apartment

Even Alex had been accepted more than she. All of Maria’s life she had worried about acceptance. Her father had rejected her. He didn’t care enough about the child he had sired to remain with her mother. What had happened to him? Amy, her mother had always told Maria that he didn’t want to accept responsibility. To Maria, responsibility always pointed to her. Before she was born, her father had come and gone and Amy always took him back. They neither one had any responsibility. Responsibility meant accepting that he had a daughter to help raise. Maria had worked hard to accept her self. Nobody else did. That was wrong. Amy had worked double hard to manage to keep Maria in a world where Social Services was always seeking a reason to take Maria away.

Maria now was grown. She never had to fear Social Services again. Alex and Liz had always accepted her. So had Liz’s father. In some ways, he was a substitute father. He had given her a job; he had advised her in working and in school. Jeff Parker had done many things that showed he accepted her. With Liz absent, she had done all she could to offer Jeff support. Maria had never let doubt into her mind, both for her sake and so she could always give him hope. What was the problem, now? Her boyfriend had told her to stay home where it was safe. Liz was in the middle of whatever was happening. Alex was lending support to his girlfriend, Isabel. Maria had just been cast aside as someone without value.

What was all this talk about Liz getting a transfusion and gaining powers? True Liz had taken the transfusion under life threatening conditions, but would the same thing give Maria powers, so she wouldn’t be left behind.

Four o’clock in the morning.

The Major had chosen a deserted Mall. He had set up a table and two chairs. Another call to the chief of police assured that the mall would not be patrolled until the sun was well up. There was a truck on the far side of the parking lot. It was one of those with a sweeper on front and a large vacuum chamber in the back. Like giant “Electro Lux” some lady might run if her front room contained a full sized football field. The Major paid no attention to the truck or the three workers. They were his three commandos. A garbage truck pulled around the back. They wouldn’t be there long and the Major was sure that they would be gone by the time he and the head of the assassins finished talking. The Major could just feel the power. It was like standing in the middle of a lightening storm. The hairs on the back of his head were standing out.

No one saw where he came from, but a gentleman approached the table. He must have been hiding somewhere. The Major looked around, but he could see nothing that could conceal any person.

The man was wearing a short-sleeved, sports shirt, tucked in at the waist. There was no way he could be hiding any weapons. At least, any weapons powerful enough to take on the three commandos. “Major,” he called out as he relit his cigar. “We have crossed paths many times, but this is the first time we have met in person,” Cigar said.

The Major nodded. He did not extend his hand. This was all business. There was no pretense of any friendship. “As you know, we now hold the only two witnesses to the assassination of the senator,” the Major stated.

The Major waited as Cigar took a long drag on his Cuban and then, Cigar said, “I think the operative word is ‘You had two witnesses.’ I am sure that at least the man was stolen out from under you.”

The Major took a deep breath. “True, but we both know that we have the thief surrounded. Especially, if we work together, we can take him and maybe, take more,” he said.

Cigar nodded. This must be what the Major wanted to negotiate about. “What more?” he asked simply.

“The witnesses have some para-normal powers. We just discovered them. There is a man who has even more superior powers. He is the one in possession of our man captive right now. We still hold the woman,” The Major told him.

“Looks like you are holding a full house,” Cigar stated. “Why do you need us?”

“I just told you. We are talking about three persons of power. There may be more. We need to take them alive. We need to attack and not hurt our targets, no matter how many troops we loose,” Major said.

Now, Cigar understood. The Major didn’t have enough men to take the three people of power. He wanted more canon fodder. “We will have to get back to you on that. We have a pretty good organization as it is. I don’t know if you are offering enough reward. Which power would be shared with us, the man and woman witnesses? Cigar asked.

The Major nodded. This might be easier than he thought. Maybe, he had been giving this group more credit than they deserved. Cigar relit his stogie. The match he used had a bit of magnesium just below the flash compound. It went off like a flash bulb. Of course, Cigar had his eyes tightly closed. At that moment, several flash bangs went off. Flash bangs were used by the military and the police. Now, it was obvious that criminal groups had use of them, also. The flash bang makes a very loud noise. It is not only loud, the sound wave is very sharp. Most people not prepared are disoriented for several seconds. There is also a very bright light about at the wave length of a welding torch.

The Major had no qualms about where his shots went. He fired all five cartridges from his small pistol. One of them caught Cigar between the eyes. Both groups of commandos advanced toward each other. They were equally armed with full-automatic weapons. An awful lot of bullets were flying around. The Major caught two in the chest and one in the face. The grenade was already in the air when the last of the assassins was dead. The grenade went off right over the remaining two men in the Major’s group.

The neighborhood was not used to this much noise. This wasn’t a place where gang bangers were free to ply their vengeance against each other. The switchboard operator was fingering a card he had been given when he went on shift. “Yes, we know about the shots. A movie company is filming in that area. We will check this out, but we are sure that it is just the movie company. The sun rose at its appointed time. The police did drive to the mall, to be welcomed by blood, bodies and bullet holes everywhere. Somebody’s ass was surely in the wringer.

Back in the war wagon

The lieutenant was worrying. The Major should have concluded his business by now. The lieutenant had only two men. One of them would have to be assigned to protect and guard the woman. He was now trying to think of a way of securing her, so both men could go with him to rescue the man. The morning was just breaking. Unless something else happened, the lieutenant intended to attack with what he had. He remembered the car. One man had totally wrecked it. He motioned to Liz to sit on the side. He secured both of her hands to a ring built into the wagon. He also used shackles to secure her ankles.

In Kyle’s Pickup

There was a tiny silver band forming on the top of the mountains. Kyle had just made his last trip to the bushes before he had to depend on the fast food place for both breakfast and for cleaning up. The fast food shop would open up in about two hours. Until then, Kyle sipped his coffee from his thermos and watched the line of cars parked near the house in question.

The Van used by Polo Shirt and his two remaining men.

The professor had no idea what had happened to the Cigar man. If something happened, it would be up to him. The professor was not normally a violent man. He had joined the other two because this gave him a way to make changes in the world. The professor had no interest in politics. He had seen the history of the country and he had seen the corruption that politics had made. The professor knew the history of the senator’s father. He had been so corrupt that the group had used him regularly. Now, he was dead and his son had been in his place. When they approached the new senator, he had been incensed to learn of his father’s corruption. The truth, when presented, was not welcomed. The young senator threatened to expose everything that they had disclosed about his father. A hit was not difficult to arrange.

The professor was now in charge of two commandos. He had to decide what he wanted to do.

The sedan of Michael, Alex and Isabel.

In her next life, Isabel was going to come back as a guy. Alex and Michael went out to water the euonymus bushes several times that night. Isabel wasn’t into camping; she preferred nice clean bathrooms. True, if she could find a dark enough place she could squat to use the rest room naturally. It was awkward and for some reason, she felt embarrassed about it.

They had run out of conversation many hours ago. They looked at he house and stared at the black vehicles behind them in the rear view mirror. Isabel wasn’t good at it, but she did lend some confusion to their vehicle. The vehicle wasn’t invisible, but it was confusing to look at. The men in black and the rest did not give it much attention. That was almost as good as invisible. That was the best they had.

Suddenly there was a flash. The windows of the house in front of them were all blown out. There was no noise, except for the falling glass, tinkling on the streets. As soon as the windows were down, there came a screaming such as was not often heard. It was a woman in extreme pain. Alex, Michael and Isabel were out of their car and running toward the house.

Of course Liz had been chained securely within the war wagon. The lieutenant led his men right behind The three hybrids. Following were Polo Shirt and his two commandos. Kyle carefully brought up the rear.
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.

Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
User avatar
ken_r
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 861
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:34 pm
Location: New Mexico

Re: Strangers & Milliseconds CC,mature, ch24 pg10, July 16 2

Post by ken_r »

begonia9508: the summer has been rough, but i am still here. Tess had to see Nasedo get hurt before she could break the bonds of the "baby elephant."

Once upon a time there was a baby elephant. The keepers kept him chained so he could eat and walk around, but try as hard as he could, the baby elephant could not break the chain or pull up the stake. When he was grown and the keepers wanted him to stay put, they chained him the same way. Now a full grown elephant could easily break the chain or demolish the stake, but he was raised to never believe that he could. Dad would always end the story by saying ‘Kyle, don’t let things of childhood limit you when you are grown. Don’t be a baby elephant,’”

L-J-L 76: It becomes a question of who saves who

Author's note: Marshal Gordon Eden was a student in my first class in high school. he became a US marshal. i am very proud to have been his teacher.



Chapter 25

Max, Tess and Nasedo

The sun was coming up. Nasedo had no idea whether the two hybrids would bow to his command or not. He envisioned tying Tess to the four bedposts and forcing Max to rape her. He could threaten Tess with more pain. He saw how Max reacted before. Max, himself, might withstand pain, but he couldn’t let someone else do the same. Nasedo was sure in that case Max would do as he was told. Nasedo’s race didn’t procreate like Earth people or even the royals. He had no concept as to ability to gain arousal or of any problems of conception.

When he came in the room where he had trapped Max and Tess, he saw Tess in Max’s arms. Maybe, they had mated after all and he would have to just check to see if it took. Nasedo grabbed Tess’s arm. He yanked her like last time across the room to a bed in the corner. Tess screamed, but Nasedo had sealed the house so no noise got out.

“I told you to never do that again,” Max shouted. Nasedo turned; he would have to punish that stupid royal again to keep him in line.

Max had no idea how the power blast worked. It would be years later when he concluded that in manipulating matter, aliens and even hybrids, could cause paths of super conductivity. Somehow energy from the surrounding air was channeled in these paths. When this energy hit anything solid, it caused the molecules to disassociate. At this time, Max did not have any idea of what he was doing. Tess was lying flat on the bed across the room. She was expecting the gynecological inspection that she had under gone so many times. Max caused the super conductor to move out like a wave from his body. It passed over Tess but smacked Nasedo in the chest. The wave, also, blew out all the windows in the house. Nasedo had sound proofed the house, but now all powers were down. The wave Max had created wiped everything it its path. Tess was now screaming for all she was worth. Nasedo staggered. He was hurt, but not down. He hadn’t expected that young hybrid king to have that much power. Max didn’t have much left. Much like a baby skunk when Max let go, he gave it all he had. It would take years of training to reserve energy for a return attack. As Nasedo tried to maintain his stance, he prepared a blast. He was so angry that he might have killed the king and made the whole plan come to a halt.

Tess had never seen Nasedo hurt. The years he had told her of his invincibility were erased. Max had hurt him. Now, she owed Max. Tess stood and poured herself into a blast. Tess was holding Nasedo, but you do not wipe out all the things you learned in your life in an instant or millisecond. Tess still couldn’t bring herself to kill him.

This was the scene that Michael, Alex and Isabel saw as they ran in the now open doors. Max was staggering with fatigue. Nasedo was staggering from Tess’s blast. She couldn’t keep it up much longer. Isabel and Michael had not learned to control their blasts very well, but they did manage to direct them to Nasedo. Slowly he melted down and then, he just turned to dust and blew away.

The five of them were standing there when six men dressed as commandos burst into the room. They were all pointing rifles at the hybrids and Alex. From reflex, a green haze developed between the five from Roswell and the six commandos. The commandos fired a couple shots but they were ineffective against the barrier.

The Major’s lieutenant spoke up, addressing the professor. “Did you hear anything about the confab that was going on?” he asked.

“No, until someone of higher authority comes by, it is up to us,” answered the professor.

“Yeah, right now it is a matter of how long they can keep this barrier up,” the Lieutenant stated.

What say we keep them here until they get tired? Then, we take all of them and let our bosses sort things out,” the professor suggested.

“They will soon tire. They expended their energy on something before. We just have to wait them out,” the lieutenant stated.

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” a voice from the door stated.

Back in the war wagon a few minutes earlier

The noise out side was deafening. All the men had run out of the wagon. Liz’s mind wandered. The Major had insisted that she be protected and guarded. Now, she was neither. Liz just sat as she looked at the two chains which held her secure in the wagon. Chains, chains, there were bicycle chains, tire chains; then Liz giggled. There were the paper chains which children made in school to decorate Christmas trees. Her mind kept thinking of the paper chains, all red and green. They were made of colored paper and glued to make links, which they ran around the tree. As she thought of the brightly colored chains, she looked down and saw that the chains on her wrists and ankles were also red and green. Liz pulled hard. The chains came apart. Max had explained a little about molecular manipulation. Somehow, Liz had achieved the transformation of the steel chains into weak paper. Liz was now free.

Liz didn’t know what to do. Finally, she started toward the house. She was sure that Max and her other friends were there. Liz heard a voice from her past.

“Liz, Liz Parker,” the voice whispered. Liz turned and saw a grown up Kyle Valenti. Kyle was carrying a mean shotgun and over his shoulder he had a bandolier of ammunition. “Liz, wait up. Let’s go in slowly. We don’t know what is happening yet,” he said.

They waited against the wall, near the opened doorway. Inside, they could hear the commandos talking. “They will soon tire. They expended their energy on something before. We just have to wait them out,” the lieutenant said.

That was when Kyle entered with Liz right behind him. “I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Kyle stated. The commandos turned to see a shotgun pointing at them as a group. If anyone started shooting, several of them were going to get seriously hurt. A shotgun can do that to a group.

They also noticed that about Kyle and the woman behind him, there was that green haze. “Kyle let me know to let the barrier down if you want to start shooting,” Liz’s voice said.

Now, it was the commandos who were in a cross fire. All parties stood quietly. They did not know what to do. Then, another new voice was heard.

Jim Valenti and three federal marshals stepped into the room. “Kyle, I didn’t want to mess your play, but I think even you will admit you could use some help. Marshal Eden and Marshal Jones, do you want to take charge?” Jim asked.

The commandos were herded out and the two marshals took charge. They turned to the seven civilians who were left. Would you like to come with us? We will set you up at the Sheridan hotel for the day and night. Everything will seem more reasonable after we all have a good sleep and a good dinner,” Marshal Eden stated. The seven civililans were taken to the Sheridan and presented with seven room keys. They saw that there were several marshals in the hall. Michael whispered to Jim Valenti and he talked to the marshals. A marshal was dispatched to bring Maria to the Sheridan. By the time she arrived, the seven had all had much needed showers. The only clothes they had that morning, were dressing gowns. Later, they would send out for better wardrobes.
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.

Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
User avatar
ken_r
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 861
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:34 pm
Location: New Mexico

Re: Strangers & Milliseconds CC,mature, ch25 pg11, July 21 2

Post by ken_r »

begonia95-8: There are still some parties dressed in black. We don't know what they want.

keepsmiling7:

L-J-L 76: you can see that Liz is developing some powers. It will take time to see how strong they are.

Natalie36:


Chapter 26

At the Sheridan Hotel in the city

It was quickly seen that only 4 keys were needed. Since this was discovered before the check out time of 10:00 AM, the marshals were able to get a refund. Hey, there was a recession going on. They had to save every penny they could. Three couples had simply handed back one key. Michael, holding the fourth key, was alone until they brought Maria to him. Michael knew that he had left Maria mad. Just how mad she would be now was a question.

If the marshal had brought a screaming kicking Maria and thrown her into Michael’s room, he would have been, in his mind, prepared for that. Instead, there was a knock on the door and when he opened it, Maria walked in with, cast down eyes, almost like she was being subservient. Michael knew that there was more to her humor than she was showing now.

Maria did not come to Michael with opened arms. Rather, she stood until the marshal had left and then, she quietly walked to a chair by the window. Maria sat and gracefully crossed her legs. She arranged her skirt to cover her knees. She stared at Michael for several seconds before she spoke. “Michael, for more than 24 hours I hated and cursed you. This was the second time in our relationship you turned away from me. The first time I followed you and what I learned strengthened our love. I thought long and hard about following you again,” she stated. Michael started to say something. Maria put her finger to her lips. “No, Michael, this is my time. I respected your wishes, but now, I want to have a understanding,” Maria continued. Michael wisely just sat and listened.

“After hating and cursing you for a time, I started thinking. If this would be the way things would be between us, then it would be better if we broke it off,” Maria told him. Michael felt the pain down to the quick. Was this the end of what he had discovered only a short time ago? Would Michael be alone, again?

Maria started again. “When I ran out of curses, both in English and then in Spanish, I started thinking. We still had the master copy of Max’s research. I didn’t imagine that I could understand much of that. For a general science dropout, the genetics Max was discussing was way over my head. Max was writing his research like a paper that he would publish. He had written something called an abstract in the front of each chapter. He wrote the abstracts in plain English. Those, I could follow with some difficulty. Max was trying to find out who or what he was, and thus, what you were. He stated over and over that he really needed Isabel to understand female aliens. He didn’t know anything about Tess. Then Max started studying Liz. For a few moments, I thought studying Liz was just for comparison. Then, I saw what Max was getting at. He wanted to establish a long-term relationship with children and everything. He wanted, what deep down I think I want, marriage, house and kids,” Maria was quiet.

Michael looked at her. He enjoyed the romp he had had with Maria, but he never thought his life would fit the “house in the burbs, bit.” Maria, once she knew he was an alien, had supported him. Now, she was saying that she wanted to be that “thing” he had been looking for along. Max must have discovered something, which would allow aliens to have children with humans. Now with children, responsibility would demand that every effort should be made to make the relationship last. Children needed two loving parents. One of them being from out there shouldn’t matter.

Maria spoke up again. “Max discovered what he is sure is a way that a human woman can carry an alien child. For Liz, it was an accidental necessity. For me, it would be an act of love. Michael, if you want it, we have a chance for a future, a future where you do not leave me home because you think I have no powers to stand beside you.” Maria stopped. She waited to see what he would do. Michael wouldn’t make a decision in any instant. Maria was sure that there would be a millisecond when she knew that he had made one and that he had made a decision in her favor.

“Later, we need to have a long talk with Max. Maybe even, one with Liz,” Michael took her in his arms. Damn, he was tired. The pleasure of being free of the euonymus bush gave into a trip to the bathroom and a call for her to join him in the shower. Then, they would spend a day in bed. They might even get a chance to catch up on sleep.

The hotel room of Max and Liz

It was one o’clock in the afternoon. Max and Liz were still in bed. Someone had pushed a cart with a combination breakfast-lunch into their room. Soon, they would decide to get out of bed and sample the brunch. There would be many busy days ahead of them, but they were days of freedom. No longer were they under guard or protection.

“Max, if things hadn’t gone as they did, would you have given Tess what Nasedo wanted?” Liz asked.

“Liz, Tess talked to me about that. Both of us faced torture in our immediate lives. Nothing we could do would mitigate that. Tess made the choice. She did not want to bring up a child to live in a place ruled by the likes of Kivar. He was the despot. Neither of us was sure that Nasedo didn’t have a way to force us to mate. We were determined that it would never be with our choice.” Max had respected Tess. She was a powerful woman to withstand the life she had lived under Nasedo. Now she was free. Just as now he and Liz were free, unless there might be something about John. Liz hadn’t told him about John moving on.

No one had yet made that most important call to Roswell. Jeff still didn’t know that his little girl was still alive. Well, she wasn’t the little girl he remembered. There would be many things he would learn that were different now.

It would be for Isabel, when she had a moment, to call the Evans family. They would have been assured also that they still had a son. They might even be glad that they soon would have a new daughter-in –law. Of course, Max hadn’t talked to Liz about this.

In the hotel room where Isabel was staying with Alex.

“Alex I told you that I didn’t want to get married until my whole family could attend. We also talked about having children. I copied this part from Max’s notes when you all were talking,” Isabel explained. She took out a shelf of papers all stapled together. She read. “While I am sure that Liz would have to have the mysterious green stuff to accept my sperm, I think that for a female hybrid who already has this, it would be reasonable to expect that she could accept human sperm and develop and carry a child, whether it be alien, human or hybrid.” Isabel looked at Alex. “We need to know more about ourselves, but Max feels that we could have natural children.”

In the room where Kyle and Tess are staying.

“Kyle, I am now free from Nasedo. I have to start thinking of how I want my life to go. I don’t have any duties to anyone but myself, now. What do I want?” Tess asked him.

“We can now date openly and not have to worry about Nasedo or anybody else objecting to what we do,” Kyle stated.

“Kyle, that is true, but now I may not be what you want,” Tess stated.

Kyle reached out and tried to pull Tess tightly against himself. “Tess, I don’t know why. You are the hottest number I have dated in a very long time,” he declared.

Tess pushed him away. “That is what I mean, Kyle. I picked you because you wanted nothing permanent. Nasedo wanted me to know about human social things, but he did not want me to get too close to any human, to contaminate my self with a human. I never completely understood what he meant by that. Now, I don’t think he was worried about me becoming pregnant. I think he was worried that I would contaminate my self with human ideas. He could have taken care of a pregnancy by his powers. He was worried about what I am feeling now. Kyle, I want something like human families have. I want to be loved and to show expressions of love in raising a family. That is never what you expressed that you wanted.”

Kyle sat down. He had expressed things like that several times to himself. He had always suggested to himself that this did not exist. Look how badly his father had suffered when his mother had left. She hadn’t even wanted to take her child with her. Right now, Kyle was with Tess. She was the best he could think of, but wasn’t there always something better down the road. Kyle didn’t know. What would gramps have thought if he’d had to bounce a great-grandchild on his knee who was also part alien?

Tess walked toward the door. This was what she feared. Better end things now. “Kyle, let’s not make things more complicated. It has been fun and you did support me when I needed it.” Tess opened the door and started to leave. Suddenly, Kyle stood. He walked to Tess and again pulled her close to himself. This time she didn’t fight him. “Tess. Maybe, I just grew up,” he stated. Somewhere, there was a millisecond when he made his decision. They closed the door, both of them on the same side.
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.

Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
User avatar
ken_r
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 861
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:34 pm
Location: New Mexico

Re: Strangers & Milliseconds CC,mature, ch26 pg11, July 27 2

Post by ken_r »

keepsmiling7: Freedom is a subjective term. My next story, "Apocolypse" I will discuss this to some extent

begonia9508: Cal Langley would be a relief, because he is fiction. The men, here, in black are probably real and have a lot to do with real world politics.

L-J-L 76: We are still not sure how safe they are. The fact is almost incidental, but Liz does have to clear Max's mind about her ex. they still have parents and other forces to worry about.


Chapter 27

Two days later, there were political and criminal things that had to be addressed.

The professor and his two commandos had disappeared. There was a record of a flight out in a private jet, but no flight plan had been filed. That was unusual. There had been orders from somewhere very high up to not pursue this any further. These orders were given and rescinded several times as different organizations fought to remember that a very important senator had been killed, along with 29 other people, and others fought to cover up what would be an embarrassment at best and criminal at worst.

A house had been destroyed. The city police wanted to investigate this but they were called off. The question of who gave the order for them to stay out of the area was not answered. Who ever it was, they did not want anything said until their retirement was assured. The bomb squad descended upon the ruins. Many explosives leave residues of nitrates. Simple explosives made by terrorists at home usually use ammonia or something like that to create a highly oxygenated substance or to create an unstable molecule. The bomb squad could not find any trace of nitrates. The destruction patterns were studied. The destruction seemed to fan out from something in the middle of the room. It also contained itself about 48 inches above the floor. Explosives didn’t act like that. New Mexico Institute of Technology at Socorro had experts in explosives of all kinds. Many of the bomb squad had studied there. Professors received calls from former students for help. They also were mystified at the patterns and lack of residue. Finally at the debriefing of all concerned, someone asked about the noise of the explosion. None of the neighbors heard anything except for breaking glass windows. If they ever figured this out, textbooks might have to be rewritten.

The Major had been well known in Washington. The three men with him had been in the secret service personnel with orders to assist the Major in his investigations into alleged terrorist activities. That they had been found dead, in the middle of a violent altercation, which had occurred in the parking lot of a nearby mall, was disturbing. There were four other players, one was a prominent sports figure, a man known for promoting many sporting events, a man well known by the public for his charitable work with under privileged children, a man with one well known vice, that of smoking Cuban cigars. When the coroner examined the body and personal effects, he found a large pocket humidor of Cuban Cigars. He couldn’t imagine how the cigars would be important to the crime scene so he passed them out to his staff. No one understood why this famous figure was here with three men who, officially, didn’t exist. The city police investigating officers, made a large collection of exotic weapons. The collection was cataloged in their report, but the weapons never made it back to the evidence room. Internal affairs had a field day. They ended up even investigating each other. They found no conclusion. They also had to admit they had lost the weapons, on he way back to the police station.

A witness protection program should have been the job of the US marshals. Liz and Max had been in great danger. They had been protected and given relative luxury for the almost two years they were in custody. No one had ever defined the Major’s authority. Did he have the authority to set up the program to protect Liz and Max? It was asked if he was protecting them? Did he have some other agenda? Did they want to file a complaint? Max, for one, wanted to quietly disappear.

“Cover your ass,” was called politics as usual in Washington. The lieutenant was only following orders. He had been insulated, as had everyone else in the Major’s organization, by the Major always keeping his plans to himself. No one was about to divulge the fact that they all believed the Major was prepared to kill his hostages if he believed it necessary. All that the lieutenant could state was that there had been a group they were contending with, who were responsible for killing the senator and all those other people. That gave truth to a rumor that had been floating around Washington for years about a secret power. It may have given truth, but it gave no evidence. Conspiracy theorists were in business as usual. It was surprising how many of their crackpot ideas were correct. There was no one alive who would tell them how close these ideas were to the truth.

Finally, most important at least in his eyes was Doctor Albert Simms, his mind had entertained so much about a Nobel Prize, that he hadn’t slept well since Michael had given him a copy of Max’s research. He hadn’t even taught his classes. His graduate students had taken care of that. He, also, had run his graduate students ragged checking the art department and all the local bars for Michael. Albert even was on first name basis with all the city morgues. If he couldn’t find Michael, then he wanted that researcher, Max. Dead or alive, Albert’s life was on hold until he had more information about this hybrid thing. Albert had many ideas of hybridization and some of them were even good. Anything to do with humans was far from Albert’s mind. He wasn’t into carnival people, you know, like snake man or cat woman.

One of Albert’s students brought him a paper. The paper had a brief article about an artist mixed up in some sort of terrorist plot south of the university. They left Albert screaming, “Get me that damned artist. Find that Michael Guerin and bring him to me.” Albert didn’t give a damn about Michael, but he was Albert’s only lead to the mysterious researcher and a possible Nobel Prize.

In a dark place, in a dark room, in a dark building in a large city.

Suit was sitting in the darken room with his finger tips touching each other. The only other person in the room with him was Polo Shirt. “We respectfully take notice of our fallen comrade. His skill at public manipulation will be missed. He was a hero even in his death. He did take down that cursed Major,” Suit intoned.

Polo Shirt spoke, “Everything was properly sanitized. None of our people can be identified. The true identity of the fallen will forever be unknown. Now, it is to ask, what is our next move?”

Suit was immovable. If it hadn’t been for his voice and his lips moving he could have been a statue. Everything he said or thought, had several hours of consideration behind it. None of Max’s milliseconds of change or decision were ever made here. “I have thought of expanding. We need to replace Cigar, maybe, it is time we look to technology,” Suit stated as he cast a small computer digital card on the table. “This cost me five million dollars. Its value may be hundreds of times more than that.”

A room at the Sheridan hotel

Liz had just finished a tearful phone call with her father. He couldn’t understand why she couldn’t come home immediately. In his mind, if he ever got her home, he never intended to allow her to get outside the house again. He was still reeling from stories of the assassination that the country was still suffering from. That his daughter had witnessed this and been held in protective custody showed him, even more, that she should never be allowed to go to the big cities again. In Roswell, shootings were drive byes and convenience store robberies, not things that rocked the entire nation. He was confused about what she said concerning the man she was living with. He hadn’t yet rationalized the information, Jim Valenti had brought back, about Liz living with her fiancée. Children just shouldn’t stray that far from home. Look what a mess she had gotten her self into! That would never have happened working at the Crashdown.

Since Max no longer enjoyed the funding from the Major, he had been informed that his lab was being torn down and the rented equipment returned to its owner. Max still had questions. Now that he had access to several hybrids, he needed to study them. He also needed to study Liz. He had taken responsibility for her health when he shared his blood with her. None of them had any idea of what would happen to her next. At first, Max was inclined to ignore the request to interview with a Doctor Simms at the university. Finally, Liz pointed out that Doctor Simms might be the only way Max could continue his studies. Max made an appointment with a delighted Albert. Now, Albert could again think of that Nobel Prize.

Office of Doctor Albert Simms, Biology department at the university

“Mr. Evans, or should I say Doctor Evans,” Albert began.

“Just Max,” Max answered. “I hold several degrees, but none of them really matter,” Max continued.

“An artist, Michael Guerin, let me look at your research. He was hoping that your writing would tell him something about what had happened to you. Of course none of us had any idea that you would be mixed up in that assassination nonsense. I would like to offer you support to take your researches further. You can move your lab here and I will find staff for what you need.” Albert was offering what he thought a lone researcher would drool over.

“My lab has been dismantled and my funding has dried up,” Max announced sadly.

Albert smiled, “That is all right, Max. My sponsor is more than generous. I have a five million dollar grant to continue research like you were doing.” Then, Albert got serious, “Of course Max, the university has very strict rules about human experiments. I understand you were experimenting on both your self and your assistant while you were at the ‘so called safe house.’ The university would never allow that to continue.” Albert saw Max’s face fall. He had no idea what Max had been doing, but he wasn’t going to let a few rules get in his way to fame. Albert had no desire to cheat Max. He would give him credit, but as the leader of the team, Albert Simms would be the one receiving the award. It would be Doctor Albert Simms whose name appeared in history. To Albert, that was what was important. The money prize would be turned over to research. After the award, screw the university. Albert would be so famous that he could defend any member of his team, no matter what they did. “Max, I could have your part of the lab off campus. What you and your assistant did in that lab could be announced in your own time. You would just assist the lab at the university as a consultant.” Albert took a deep breath, he had offered this man almost anything he wanted. Albert was just listening for the decision, which would allow Albert to make that all important phone call. Five million dollars was a good grant. The university would probably fall all over itself kissing up to one Doctor Simms. Albert would just make sure that if Max did anything illegal, that information would never get out.

It was a lot more than a millisecond for Max to make his decision.
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.

Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
User avatar
ken_r
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 861
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:34 pm
Location: New Mexico

Re: Strangers & Milliseconds CC,mature, ch27 pg12, Aug 4, 20

Post by ken_r »

begonia9508: We would like to think that academia was pure with their interest of giving intellectual wisdom to their students. Tony Hillerman, in his southwest series about the Navajos, relates characters who are willing to kill for their academic beliefs. Isaac Asimov in his mystery writings uses academic reputations as reasons for murder. Smugglers of Antar the second in the series "Liz of the Desert." has a scorned professor who becomes a serial killer because of jealously. Professors are well known, to those still in college, as people who will take the advantage of the work of their students. A little later we wee that Professor Simms is, at least willing to allow his students to present their own papers.

Author's note look up the other candidates for Al Gore's peace prize.
http://dailymull.com/1605/Irena-Sendler ... t-it-Again

President Obama's prize was given even before he did very much in office.

somewhere someone is pulling strings. Is there a secret power out there.

keepsmiling7: Max will feel that he has sold out to the devil. Max has other responsibilities, maybe this is the only way.

L-J-L 76: Happy endings take some time to happen. Sometimes, happy endings are only understood when we get to the end. As i get closer to death, I am more and more assured that, except for the death of my son, there has been happiness in my life.




Chapter 28

In a very nice apartment in a more fashionable part of the city.

Michael had never cared about where he hung his clothes. As a child he had been kicked around from place to place. He always was careful never to have many possessions so he could be uprooted at a millisecond’s notice. Now, he had been offered a position in the art department. Doctor Fred Green had agreed to sponsor a major art show for his work. Doctor Green was the bad boy of the art department. Doctor Green liked wild paintings, naked women, exotic liquor from foreign lands and virtually any chemical which didn’t kill him outright. Doctor Green had tripped out on so many things that he was always looking for something new. When he first met Michael and viewed his sculpture, Fred Green was sure that he had found a soul brother. It troubled Fred that Michael didn’t drink anything stronger than Snapple. Michael lived with only one woman. But, Michael saw things that Fred had never experienced on any chemical trip.

Unlike Maria, the first time she had seen Michael’s sculpture, Fred saw connections that he had never dreamed of before. Some of the connections were almost of another dimension.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8rifKlq5hc This takes several seconds to load up.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... CDcQ9QEwBg

This one is amazing.

Michael did not make his sculpture by mathematics. He made them by what he saw. That was what blew Doctor Green’s mind. It made him almost sober.

Doctor Fred Green wanted to study Michael’s work. In some way Doctor Green wanted to see what Michael saw. Fred had expressed that he would even give up chemicals for this experience.

Michael’s thoughts, were disturbed by Maria. “Michael, I want you to talk to Max. He says that taking the change is too dangerous. He says that if he had known what he knows now, he is not sure that he would have allowed Liz to take it. Of course, if he had kept to those ideas, Liz now would be just a memory. Their protectors probably wouldn’t even have allowed her parents to know of her death,” Maria stated. This was becoming a repeated discussion. One, which Michael thought, should have been settled when Max described the danger Liz could have faced and still might face in the future.

Michael liked the Maria he had. A changed Maria, especially when the change could lead to her death, was not acceptable. Problem was that Mommy hormones were raging. Isabel, Tess and even Liz were showing signs of pregnancy. Maria was left out. That Liz could talk about problems of alien natures with Izzy and Tess, also, made Maria feel like an outsider. In Maria’s eyes, all it would take was to be connected with Michael for a few hours as his blood flowed through her veins. Damn, Max had that brand new lab and he had all that support from the university. Max’s stories of what could go wrong scared the hell out of Michael, but Maria could not help but desire to be like Liz. She wanted a baby. Correction, she wanted Michael’s baby. Max had even made the suggestion that, maybe, they could split the alien nature off Michael’s sperm. Then, Maria could be fertilized in that lab and she could have Michael’s child. That set Maria off again. No, she wanted to conceive a child by ‘loving screwing,’ the old fashioned way. She wanted to remember what she and Michael shared, to create this child. Maria, as usual, was being unreasonable, at least the way Michael and Max saw things.

Liz being back in the city with Max was a monumental feet in itself. Their marriage, attended by just friends and family only made Jeff offer to clear out the apartment and offer them free board if they would just stay at home.

Living with a new husband, even though they had been living together for several months in her parents home, was not something Liz wanted to do. She realized that her parents had been traumatized by her disappearance, but Liz wanted to live her life her own way. She made all sorts of promises that she would return many times and she would call more often than she had ever done before, but, Liz wanted to bring up her child her own way. Of course, that off the cuff announcement that she was pregnant, started off another series of discussions. Jeff and Nancy would began to accumulate frequent flier miles shortly. If you couldn’t get Liz back to Roswell, they would bring their part of Roswell to the city. Jeff and Nancy intended to be a large part of their grandchild’s life.

Max, now, had the problem. He did not want Liz to visit a normal baby doctor? This would be anything other than a normal pregnancy. Doctor Simms took care of this. He invited an obstetrician into his team. Of course, the doctor signed many caveats of confidentially before he received his very generous stipend.

This brought everything back to Maria. She was not included. Would now she be some kind of freak? Maria wanted a baby. She wanted it the old fashioned way. She wanted the baby from Michael. There was nothing Doctor Simms’ money could do to fix this. Max could fix things relatively easily. “Just hook ‘er up to ‘ole Michael and get out of the way.”

In a dark place, in a dark room, in a dark building in a large city.

Suit spoke up. “We should consider Doctor Albert Simms. He is ambitious and what he wants more than anything in the world is a Nobel prize in genetics. The work of his team is probably even great enough to deserve this. Hell, we took a prize away from a lady who had saved hundreds of children from death during World War II and gave it to an aging politician to assure his silence. A prize in genetics should not even have any emotion connected to it,” he stated.

“Can we believe that this Doctor Simms can be controlled? You know some academics live in a fantasy of unbendable principles,” Polo Shirt replied. As a professor, he was well acquainted with the frailties of academics. Some of them lived on other worlds than did normal folks. They could be idealistic, but their ideologies were many times strange.

“This man is so full of human vices it is scary. He wants, fame, power and wealth. How much more like us can you get,” Suit asked.

“All right, we should introduce ourselves slowly until we have something on him that will assure he is with us,” Polo Shirt said.

“That goes without saying. How is your biology?” Suit asked.

“Good enough,” Polo Shirt stated.

“Well, I want you to head a secret, separate lab that mirrors that of Doctor Simms. I want every experiment he does to be verified, every experiment, which he declines as too dangerous, to be investigated. Start a recruitment of new commandos. This time, they will be scientists. They should have the same temperament as the other commandos we had before, just smarter,” Suit announced. Polo Shirt nodded. Power, fame and wealth would still rule. Nothing had changed since the original senator had taken their bribes. That stupid son should have gone along. He wasted his life. He was now dead and everything was just like before. Well, maybe,` he had done them a favor. His assassination had discovered this new power. Aliens might be the atom bomb of tomorrow. This research might turn out to be the “Holy Grail” of modern biology.

Back east where Isabel had gown up, Alex had his business and the Evans family still resided.

It was important that a girl had her mamma near when she had her first child. Philip and Diane were concerned about Isabel, but they were also concerned about their missing son, Max. He had been back to visit, taking Liz with him for a brief time. Liz explained that Max had an important position in a lab in the southwest. She also explained that she was considering a teaching position as soon as the baby was born.

Diane had the unenviable position of wanting to be with her daughter, Isabel at the birth of her child and with Liz and Max when their child came into the world. The more Max and Isabel talked, the more Isabel felt that she should be under the doctor who worked for the Simms’ lab. “Mom, you and dad started in the southwest. Do you ever have the desire to return?” Isabel asked.

Isabel was sitting at the Evans family kitchen table. Diane had several catalogues spread out and was looking at baby things. They had been discussing what Isabel would need when the baby was born. Diane had been talking about pre-schools. “You know that it is never too early to think about that,” Diane stated.

“Mom, what if my baby grew up with closer ties to those like it?” They hadn’t determined the sex of the child because Isabel still wasn’t sure, who she wanted for a baby doctor.

Diane, finally, realized what Isabel was getting at. “What about all the alien paranoia? Do you want your child to always be hiding from alien hunters?” she asked.

“Mom, that is in Roswell. The rest of the southwest is little different from here in the east, as far as fear of aliens, goes,” she answered. “I am not sure I want my child to face all the prep schools, pre-schools and such. Alex grew up in the southwest, so did Max’s wife. Both of them got into prestigious colleges by their abilities. Both of them had good educations,” she continued.

Diane frowned, “What is the real reason, you want to return to the southwest?”

“Mom, I don’t want to lose the support from you and dad, but I had to learn everything about my self alone. Max has given all of us a lot of information that he and Liz learned. Maybe, it is me who wants community support. I think of going to a doctor, where I could be open about myself, talking to women, like Liz and the new woman, Tess. Max has established a community of alien support and knowledge. Alex has said he can move anywhere and still run his business. Could you and dad ever consider retiring and moving west?” Isabel asked as she summarized her concerns.

Diane and Philip had discussed retirement. There gets to be a time when what you do everyday just isn’t as important as it once was. You start thinking of what would happen if you just didn’t make it into work tomorrow. You think about that book you haven’t had time to read, that skill that you promised to someday hone to perfection and finally those grandchildren you want to spend more time with. You didn’t take your own children fishing enough because you were worried about saving enough money for college. Now, let their parents worry about that. Sitting on a river bank telling stories about the good old days and seeing that look when the bobber darts down and the child knows that it now has power, not yet the power of aliens, just plain old power of the fishing line. That face when you fry up that fish and the child knows it harvested its own food. There are just so many different reasons to not go into work another day.

In the city in New Mexico where Max worked for Doctor Simms, Michael was becoming renown as an artist, Alex had established the western branch of his software business and two elderly couples had just purchased town houses. No yard to keep up, small house, little to do except take the grand kids to the zoo. When they came, that is.

When he saw Maria sitting almost alone in the company of the three women all planning their families, Michael could understand her frustration. When planning for the upcoming event, many couples start thinking about what they liked about their own youth. They think about how they want to raise their children just like their parents raised them. Then with a little more thought, they realize their parents were not perfect so they think about how they want to change what they would do with their children.

Maria could think of all the mistakes her mother made. Like all the times Maria could not see any solidarity in the men who paraded through her mother’s life. Maria had Michael. He was her personal alien and also, the strongest anchor she had in her personal life. Any dalliances Michael had maybe had in his youth were completely forgotten. All the time growing up, Michael had been looking for what he had now found. To Michael, Maria was caustic, bright, beautiful and passionate. Like his art, Maria brought everything in his life together. There was only that one thing, children. “Michael, I want your child. I want to see you when I look into its face. Michael I want to desire strawberries and peanut butter mixed with butterscotch. Yes, I even want a craving for Snapple and Tabasco sauce. I want to remember the passion I had at the time when the child was conceived,” Maria continually explained.

Michael and Max had discussed in detail, Max’s fears about the procedure he had used to save Liz’s life. When Liz lay bleeding, Max had responded to expediency. How could he purposely put his friend’s wife in such a position? How would his boss react if it had been known that Max was again, considering the alteration of a perfectly healthy human being, just because that was what she wanted?
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.

Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
User avatar
ken_r
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 861
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:34 pm
Location: New Mexico

Re: Strangers & Milliseconds CC,mature, ch28 pg12, Aug 11, 2

Post by ken_r »

begonia9508:

Keepsmiling7:

Author's note: Before she was Michelle of LA she was Michelle of Yonkers, somewhere before that she was Michelle of Maine. My thanks for a short essay on people of Maine. I hope I used her help honorably. Maine is a difficult country and the people living there are very strong and self reliant. Do not mistake any of these men around the cracker barrel for being ignorant. On the contrary they are comfortable in their knowledge and past to allow a jargon or slang to bind them together. Almost any area of the country there are rural places where elderly men sit and gossip while doing something like playing checkers, chess or whittling toys out of scrap wood. These lodges are informal and held together by mutual respect.


Chapter 29

At a mysterious Lab in the backwoods of Maine.

Working conditions couldn’t be better. The lab was in an old house which had been the estate of a wealthy family which had died off, too long on the market during the recession. The estate had been gated, but now the gates had been rebuilt. There were guards patrolling the perimeter of the estate and it, also, had an extreme alarm system. The security was great. It could have been looked at as a modern version of the “Manhattan Project.” One native of Maine once said, “Sigh, (sob!) Why does everybody put their nasty stuff in sweet innocent Maine?” No it wasn’t from the influence of any political family or any Steven King novel. Like the beautiful mountains of Los Alamos back in New Mexico, during the Manhattan project, Maine was far from the primaries, that is Max and Doctor Simms, and has places secluded enough that fail safe measures can be taken that aren’t in the constant observation of the locals. In it’s own way, gandarium was every bit as dangerous as the uranium used in the bomb. If they had known as much as the Antarians learned by their mistakes, some place on the moon would have been preferable.

Around a cracker barrel and checker board

The stubborn individualism of the New Englanders didn’t stop speculation about “them strangers,” but the money infused into the local economy kept any official inquires quiet. Nobody wanted to scare off the golden goose. The official position was that, strong fences make good neighbors, prevailed. Those people, wanted to be left alone, isn’t that what many in Maine wanted. The fences were high enough that any deer being chased legally or illegally, couldn’t jump over, giving an excuse for hot pursuit.

-----------------------

The employees were all just out of college. They were all chosen for their fresh outlook. They had no paradigms to hold them back. Nothing was impossible, just not yet understood. The pay was great and they were supplied anything they wanted. Being young, none of them thought anything of the fact that none of them were married. Several times a month, they were all taken to Atlantic City to spend four days of debauchery. Once a year, they had been promised a week’s vacation to any place in the world.

Along with good pay, though, security was strict; the research was “out of this world.” They were presented with two sets of notes to study. They were commanded to reproduce the results of both of these researchers. They were given a sealed container of something they were told was extremely dangerous. It was up to them to learn how to handle it. Once they had perfected safe techniques, then they were ordered to learn its properties, find if it could be synthesized in a lab and if it could be enhanced in any way.

At first, it was assumed that it must be a bio-hazard. An isolation chamber was prepared. They already had a safe room with automatic lockdown procedures. The investigators would stand behind a safe screen. With isolation gloves, they would manipulate the specimen. There was no way it could get out. When the container was opened a small amount seemed to take life and crawl out of the container looking like a blue caterpillar. With the gloves, each of the scientists took a piece of the jelly like substance and examined it. It had an un-earthly blue glow not green at all. None of the radiation counters registered anything. To the scientists gathered outside the safe room, it seemed that the samples were almost observing the scientists handling them. It was, maybe in some way, alive.

As the collection of scientists stood outside the glass watching, the blob of blue jelly melted down into the gloves. The operators began screaming and they jerked their hands out of the gloves. It was seen that what had been a small blob, was now separated into several blobs, growing and taking in the investigators’ arms. Alarms sounded, doors locked and sealed as those outside the room, now watched by camera. Soon the screaming stopped and the watchers were treated to the sight of their comrades as the blob consumed them. These were the first fatalities in the human study of gandarium.

In the vacuum container of gandarium

The little mother of gandarium gave a gandarium sigh. When captured, she had been trying to make contact. How did the pieces of this creature expect to make contact if when a meld occurred, they just melted away. Then why did the pieces take so much retaliation when a meld failed. That pointed to a gross impatience. Gandarium waited thousands of years between contacts. If the contact failed it was willing to wait thousands of more years.

The university lab of doctor Simms

Albert Simms was never clear about the number of aliens Max knew on Earth. He had suggested that Max ask for more blood donations. “Doctor Simms, our contract is with me. I will give as much blood as I safely can, for the study. Any other aliens which may or may not exist are not concerned in this study.” Max had carefully removed much of his information about Liz before he turned over his final notes to Doctor Simms and thus, to the clandestine lab in Maine. Careful accounting of the blood he gave was done by the university. There were some discrepancies that were found, but they, finally, were put down to accounting errors. The lab in Maine was able to separate and concentrate the green flecks into the blue gandarium. Gandarium without host and in a concentrated condition was totally different from the green specks in the blood shared with Liz.

Antar 2000 years ago

The benefits of the newly formed benevolent monarchy were not only an extended time of peace, but also a time of exploration. FTL (faster than light) drives had been used for many years. It took the luxury of peace for the monarchy to seek avenues of knowledge. When you tire of killing your neighbor, sometimes you think that there must be more somewhere, “beyond the second star to the right.” When they had traveled “straight on until morning,” they found strange systems indeed.

Gandarium was a benevolent life form. It was a single entity which covered the whole planet. It had rested for centuries just contemplating its growth and the planet it resided upon. You can imagine its excitement when a strange life form landed upon the planet. That the life form separated from its container was no surprise. Often, Gandarium would send pieces of itself to seek out recently uncovered faults in the planet. It was no surprise when the strange life form further separated and began to study different aspects of Gandarium. Gandarium separated and sent some of its pieces to contact the pieces of the life form. Its first attempt at contact was to meld with a piece of the creature. Gandarium did not achieve contact. The piece of the creature melded with the part of gandarium and then, the piece died. Gandarium did not see nor did it hear sounds. It had no knowledge of pain. When the piece of the new creature withered, twisting and screaming at the contact, Gandarium could only understand that contact had failed. The rest of the creature retaliated with anger. They began to attack with fire. The fire made Gandarium retreat its pieces. The Antarians managed to capture some of the pieces in containers, which totally isolated the pieces from their mother part. Once they could no longer contact their mother, they became docile.

It took years of study on an isolated asteroid for the Antarians to understand that Gandarium was a single entity. As long as the pieces were isolated, they were dormant. If a large enough blob of Gandarium managed to escape its container, the blob immediately and aggressively began to search for the mother part. The blob attacked what ever it felt was in its way. It was even more years and more labs being incinerated into atomic cinders after total disasters, that the Antarians learned a small amounts of Gandarium could be beneficial. As long as the amount was not enough for the gandarium to form a thinking being, the material strengthened immune systems and enhances mental/physical powers. This led to studies in power blasts where avenues of superconductivity could be formed, studies in cloning to the advanced ideas of combining different DNA from creatures all over the universe. The individuals infected with the marginal amount of gandarium, found they now had marvelous control of matter near them. Now exploration turned to abductions of creatures to extract their DNA and to experiments combining it. Antar was preparing to infiltrate a culture. It was known by its inhabitants as Earth. There was a certain benevolence in this venture. They wanted to learn and to assist the Earth creatures with their infantile development.

“Pax Romana,” peace of Rome, was a peace enforced by the strength of Rome. As the great experiment was prepared, Kivar appeared. The experiment turned from benevolence to preservation of essence of the royal family. If the ship could have been better prepared, if a better adult than a household slave could have been included, maybe things could have been different. Noblesse oblige, the obligation of noble birth, made the queen mother decide the royal family should all face the fate given by Kivar, even though it was obvious that this fate included a terrible death. Her choice of the household slave was made with the slave owning culture’s complete lack of consideration of the slave’s feeling. We now know what became of this venture.

It seemed that the clandestine lab, finally, concentrating the green flecks into the blue blob would have to relearn all that had taken years for the Antarians to descover.

At the Lab privately run by Max and when she was feeling well, his wife Liz. Michael was talking.

“Max, maybe, the best thing would for me to just break it off. Maria is becoming more and more estranged from all of us. She feels she can’t be part of the group anymore. It is different for Alex and Kyle. They both are becoming parents of something, whether it be alien, human or hybrid,” Michael stated.

“I don’t think that would be good for either of you. I just wish I knew more about the green particles. They are so much of what it means to inherit from Antar. I heard that it was suggested that the green particles should be concentrated. I don’t know why, but I don’t think it is a good idea. Somehow, I feel that the particles are dangerous in concentrations,”

Max explained what he had observed and also, what he had conjectured. He still knew little about that which made them different. Max had also talked with Maria. He knew that she was about to loose herself in the frustration of being different. Michael had explained the years when he thought he was the only one in the world like himself. Now, Michael had others to lean on. Within the group, Maria was becoming the outcast, not by anything any of them did. She was becoming an outcast because she was different from all her friends.

Max now had four samples of hybrid blood to study. So far he hadn’t seen any difference. True their DNA donors, from the alien side had been from the royal class. In some way they were probably all related. Even Michael, the soldier probably was a relation to royalty. If the original intention was to infiltrate Earth’s population, there must have been some intention for Earth females to accept Alien genes. Maybe. what he had done to Liz was correct. Again, Max could only wish for a manual or textbook to follow. He knew that Michael wasn’t onboard with the idea, but Max now believed that giving Maria the transfusion might be the correct thing to do. The only way he could do that was to directly transfer the blood from Michael. He didn’t want any surprises later of Maria not being compatible with her husband. There might still be differences in blood that he hadn’t detected. It would be a crime if he used his blood, a crime that his friends would never be able to forgive, if she was only compatible to Max.

The day Maria was given the key to open the door

Michael and Maria were both clad in hospital gowns. Max had placed them side by side with just enough room between them for him to stand. More than once, Max wished he could do this with a full staff in a proper hospital room.

Maria was upbeat, but Michael was still sullen. He had been outvoted, but he still feared the change. Michael wasn’t good with any change. Growing up, changes often meant difficult times of coping. Things were never like they had been before. Maybe, things hadn’t been perfect before, but change was always a challenge calling for adaptation. For Michael, adaptation this time, might mean being without Maria. This was just too dangerous.

Besides Max, Liz was the only other person in the room with the two patients. Her time was near. Liz was having trouble standing so she had a stool to support her. Max was not too happy that she insisted on being with Maria, but Maria was her oldest and bestest friend, (her words not his).

Maria hated needles. This was a testimony to how much she wanted this transfusion. Max had carefully removed a small amount of her blood. Max had no idea of how much blood Liz had lost. He only hoped that what he was doing now would give Maria what she wanted.

There was no study to warrant it, but Michael wanted Max to transfer the removed blood from Maria to him after he had given her his blood. Michael shouldn’t have any problem with foreign blood because of the green flecks. There was no precedent for any of this. Max could only hope. It would wreck all of their lives if anything went wrong.

Liz held her hand over Maria’s eyes as Max fixed the first needle. Maria flinched but she was determined not to cry out. This all was at her request. Was she being a glutton for punishment, all for the sake of love? Maria felt weak and drowsy. She felt another prick into her other arm and somewhere in her mind, she knew that now Michael was pumping his blood into her body. As long as it was done very slowly, there was little danger that Maria’s system couldn’t handle it. Her body would separate the particles and the useful cells in her blood stream. The liquid part would be drained by her system to be disposed of by her body’s method of removing excess fluid. Maria was asleep when Max made the transfer of the small amount of her blood back into Michael. They both slept, side by side until well into the evening.

Maria did as she was told, but she did not fully wake up as she was led to another bed to rest for the remainder of the night. Max was worried. When he had done this with Liz, she was weak for some time, but Max was able to clean up the bloody mess in the kitchen before the men in black returned. Maybe Michael taking Maria’s blood back wasn’t that good of an idea after all. Michael had told Max he considered it like exchanging wedding rings. It is said by some bachelors, that rings cut off their circulation, but Max had never heard of rings making the groom tired, as Michael appeared to be. It would be morning before Max or Liz knew what the condition of the patients would be.
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.

Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
User avatar
ken_r
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 861
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:34 pm
Location: New Mexico

Re: Strangers & Milliseconds CC,mature, ch29 pg12, Aug 17, 2

Post by ken_r »

keepsmiling7:

Begonia9508: Max is being jerked around by situations beyond his ability. Throughout the story, Max hasn't shown great leadership and he doesn't want to. even when he was being protected, Max only wanted to study, have a few hobbies and have a good woman.


Chapter 30

Kyle and Tess

Both Kyle and Tess had left their former jobs, without any notice. The information that someway they had been wrapped up in the now infamous assassination of the senator back east and that they had been involved with some sort of abduction along with a lot of pleading, had allowed them to return.

Tess’s office was now faced with the need for her to take maternity leave. With a couple letters from US Marshal Eden, Kyle now was in charge of a security company. He was a consultant for most of the school systems in the state. Kyle took his job very seriously. His first task was to check the backgrounds of all the men working in the various security firms used by the school systems and next was to update the training of the officers by the State Law Enforcement Academy at Santa Fe. Kyle was scheduling the officers so that full classes could be held and no firm or organization would be completely short of officers during each session.

“Kyle, wake up!” Tess called him. “It is getting close to the time.” Kyle called Doctor Sanchez and then he called Max. They would meet at Max’s lab.

Tomas Alejandro Sanchez had been a good student. He had studied family medicine and prepared himself with experience in obstetrics. Tomas’s dream was to return to northern New Mexico and work in several of the small towns found there. The problem was student loans. Even with government support for working in rual settings, Tomas was facing slave labor and wages for several years. That is when he met El Diablo, Mestophales himself, Doctor Simms.

Max needed a baby doctor and keeping Max happy meant getting nearer to that Nobel Prize. Simms stressed that the time of employment, was not forever and, of course, the salary was great. This way Tomas could pay off the loan quickly. Where El Diablo came in, were the forms he had to sign. Confidentially was the main subject to whatever Simms was doing. At first, he studied some very strange blood samples. It looked like Simms was close to some pretty strong anti rejection drugs. Tomas thought that, maybe, he was working with organ transplants. Then, Tomas was informed that at a branch office he had three patients waiting for him.

Liz, Isabel and Tess at the doctor’s office

They were all three pregnant and they all exhibited the blood type that he had been studying. They were all young, first time pregnancies and they did demand a lot of time in check ups. Tomas wanted to say that women had been having babies for centuries, so there would be no problem. Then, he thought of the blood anomaly. Doctor Simms had ordered him to give these women all of his time. The second surprise was that Doctor Simms had demanded all of the observations Tomas had made on the blood samples documented. When he got to the women at distant lab/office, he was told to keep only the minimum of records and to give all those records and observations to the man known only as “Max.” Doctor Simms would like access to all that Tomas learned, but the chance of angering Max, when Simms was so close to his goal was too great. Simms had plenty to write his paper and also, allow his chief graduate student his share of fame also. Max didn’t seem to be interested in any fame.

All three pregnancies were progressing normally as far as Doctor Sanchez could tell. He wondered why a private physician would be wanted to concentrate all his time to them. He decided to study what he could. The women were up to any test he wanted to perform. They were very willing subjects. Two of them had a normal blood count, that is, if you consider the green flecks normal. No one had named the green flecks yet. The third one had green fleck counts off the wall. They would be high one week and low the next. It was clear her blood was not stabilizing. Liz, the patient in question was the wife of the mysterious man, Max. Tomas sat down in Max’s office and had a long talk.

“Max, do I address you as doctor, señior, mister or what?” he asked as a start.

Max gave a sad smile. “Just Max will do fine,” he said.

“Your wife has a very unstable blood count when we consider the green flecks. What are they anyway?” Tomas asked.

“They are what makes us, us,” Max stated. Then, he handed Tomas a box. Inside were several vials of blood. They were marked by name and by spouse. Max watched as Tomas carefully examined the vials. “I was sure you would want to know more about us. Here are blood samples of each of the fathers, of the babies to be, including mine. You need to know as much as possible about us to help the children after they are born.” Max waited as he saw Doctor Sanchez assimilate the information. “There is one more woman, I need you to examine,” Max continued. Please give her a complete exam and send all tests to the lab under Doctor Simms. Do not use her name. Use a code known only to you.” Max indicated that Doctor Sanchez was excused. Max didn’t intend to seem rude, but he was uncomfortable discussing this with Doctor Sanchez. Maybe with time, he could open up and be more friendly. Max had to establish trust first.

Maria at Doctor Sanchez’s office

Again, Maria hated needles. Now, she had been stuck so many times by Max and he was asking her to endure another examination. She was sure there would be more needles, but when she complained, Michael reminded her that this was all caused at her request.

“Mrs. Guerin,” Tomas began. “Max has requested for you to receive a full exam. Of course, this will only be done at your consent,” he continued.

Maria nodded. Amy, always worrying that Maria would make the same mistakes she made in her youth, had given Maria that mixed message of demanding Maria practice abstinence while Amy had her fitted with a prescription for birth control pills from a gynecologist.

Maria found Doctor Sanchez almost shy as he invaded her privacy. When he learned that she spoke Spanish, he gently encouraged her with requests made in that language. Maria sometimes let her Spanish fall into disuse. Concentrating on his words, she forgot some of her discomfort.
She endured sitting in her examination gown, with the open back as he pricked and prodded her body. She did learn to feel more comfortable with Doctor Sanchez than she had with some of those doctors picked by her mother. With Doctor Sanchez, she felt that he was her doctor. The conversation in Spanish almost felt like a privacy that she had shielding her from the outside world. He wasn’t about to report everything he found to someone like her mother. “Does this report go to Max or who will eventually get it?” Maria inquired.

Doctor Sanchez looked up. He hadn’t thought this through. “Mrs. Guerin, I will discuss the report with you and as much as I can control, it will never be divulged to anyone without your permission,” Tomas promised.

Doctor Sanchez admitted that he didn’t have total control of everything, but he did promise to only discuss her report with those she agreed needed the information. Maria felt a lot better talking to Doctor Sanchez. He now seemed more a friend than the cold personage of her doctor. The table where he made her sit was still cold pad, but his voice made her forget fears built up through her entire life with doctors.

In a dark place, in a dark room, in a dark building in a large city.

The meetings had taken on a different character. There were essentially two separate meetings. First Suit and Polo Shirt would discuss affairs of politics. “Do our people in congress suggest anything in the foreseeable future that will need our concern?” Suit asked.

“No,” Polo Shirt answered. “There are several roads in the rural districts which need paving and bridges, these will be traded for an international airport in the south. I hope that damned senator will get more passengers than just his family to use it. I just can’t figure how many people from Coon Hollow need to fly direct to Paris,” he commented.

“As long as the senator is happy and cooperative, that is all that counts. We will just let politics as usual run its course. Keep an eye on the house. There is a new progressive movement which might have to be controlled if it gets troublesome,” Suit commented.

“There is a report that the green stuff concentrated is difficult to handle,” Polo Shirt stated.

Suit was seldom surprised, but this science stuff was always surprising. Sometimes, the scientist were more arrogant than the politicians. “Care to elaborate what happened?” he asked.

Polo Shirt glanced down as a set of notes, which would be shredded and incinerated before they left the room. “The ‘stuff’ managed to escape an isolation chamber. It was as if it might be alive in that form. It killed the technicians handling it. The safe room did hold and evacuating all the air out of the room did kill the sample, which had escaped. Good laboratory techniques preserved the major part of the sample. The technicians did close the container before they started their examination. The sample seemed inert until it was manipulated, then, it aggressively attacked the technicians,” Polo Shirt explained.

“See that the technicians’ deaths are listed under need to know and their families are notified that they were killed while working on an experiment for National Security. Properly indemnify his family with our sympathies. Do you have anything else,” Suit stated.

“If there is nothing more pressing, then I move we bring in our newest member,” Polo Shirt stated.

Albert was clearly nervous. He had been sitting in this dimly lit room for almost an hour. To make it worse, he had been brought here by a note on formal stationary, which asked if he was interested in an organization which was in charge of oversight of several scientific ventures. The membership carried a generous stipend which Albert would have had a difficult time turning down. Many things about this organization were mysterious.

A dim red light blinked twice over a door and a disembodied voice requested, “Albert Simms, please enter the next room.”

Albert saw two men sitting in the very dimly lit room. “Sit down, please,” the voice said.

Albert started to introduce himself. “Please, no names here,” one figure stated. “You may call me Suit,” the figure raised his hand in greeting. “My colleague you may call Polo Shirt,” a second man raised his hand. “With your permission, we will call you Doc,” the voice concluded.

The second man spoke, “No notes will be kept of these meetings, any notes you bring in will be destroyed before you leave. No mention of this organization or these meetings can be made outside of these walls. We hope the ample stipend will assure your compliance.”

Albert was put off at first. He had the academic’s insistence of total freedom. Then, he thought of the money he had placed in his account, just for attending this meeting. He also thought of the promises that had been made of the power. Albert would assist in the oversight of so many programs that otherwise would never see the light of day. He had been assured that except for the oversight he would be a party to, the programs would have no rules or controls. Science would be as it was meant to be with out ignorant interference.

Kyle and Tess at Doctor’s office.

Max hung up the phone. “Tess’s baby is due,” he whispered to a half sleeping Liz.

“Max, I can’t make it. I just hope my time waits until Tess is safe,” Liz murmured.

Max leaned over and kissed Liz. “That is okay. I called Maria. She promised to be there,” he told Liz.

Liz propped herself up on her elbows. “Maria, are you sure, Max? She faints at the sight of blood, hers or anyone else’s,” Liz groaned.

“Liz, you might be surprised at how strong Maria is becoming. She will do just fine. She wants a baby so badly that she will help Tess or anyone else if it means someone will be there later for her,” Max informed his wife.

Max hurried to his lab and Doctor Sanchez’s office. One statement bothered him. Liz was worried if her time might come before he got back from caring for Tess. Max would ask Isabel to look in on Liz later in the morning. There was still some time before he had to be concerned about Izzy if Doctor Sanchez’s exams were correct.
Good teachers are born that way, not made. No! Good human beings, are born that way. Some of them become teachers.

Of course, life is not fair. You shouldn't expect it to be fair, but you should expect it to be ironic.
JKR 1981-2001
History is made of wars, recovering from wars and preparing for the next war.
JJR 1975-
Locked