Alien Caller (66 page)

David had
barely gotten around to asking him about how things had been back
home, when another human appeared on the scene and David forgot all
his questions in his surprise. This time it was the local doctor
who caught his eye. Doctor Hayes, who according to gossip was the
most eligible bachelor in town, and probably the most dedicated to
that state of unmarried bliss. Rumours had circulated for years
speculating that he was either gay, or else so terminally shy that
he wouldn’t go near a lady, but the truth was in all likelihood
that he was simply too busy, too shy and too dedicated to his
patients to have the time.

That had
apparently changed at some point David realised, as the doctor
escorted a young Leinian lady up the hill, in a most familiar
manner. A very pregnant lady. For a moment David thought he must
have come along simply as a human doctor, until he noticed how
closely they held each other. Then when he realized the truth,
David’s eyes nearly popped out of his head at the sight, and Ayer
started laughing quietly.

“Apparently the
very next day after you and Cyrea had been made so famous, he and
Doctor Sarel tied the knot as you say. They just never decided to
do it in public!” David stared at him coolly, or at least in what
he hoped was a disapproving manner, but was ignored. There was no
doubt about it, the kid was laughing at him, though in a well
meaning way. The pattern continued, as the doctor guided his mate
off to be with Cyrea and Rebecca, while he came to join them.

“Doctor, -
John, isn’t it.” He offered his hand, still shocked to be seeing
his doctor in the same situation as himself.

“Father to be
number three, at your service.” He performed a slight bow while
David smiled, wondering how they’d kept it so quiet.

“When -?” That
was as far as he got as the doctor started laughing. He’d obviously
been expecting the question.

“About
seventeen hours after you and Cyrea. You beat us to it, but not by
much. We’d been edging around it for months, both of us wondering
if we could, if we should, but neither of us working up the courage
to say anything. Then Sarel came running in one morning with a dvd.
All we were supposed to do was watch it and confirm that it was
possible and that neither of you would be harmed by it. I mean we
are doctors. But we were the very worst people to show it to.”

“You two were
doing it, and you looked so happy. It was simply too tempting. I
don’t even know who made the first move, but from then it was
simply a chain reaction. I don’t recall us making it off the couch
that day, and then we had to take a week’s sick leave each.” David
was torn between more humiliation as he understood exactly what dvd
he was talking about, and shared humour as he remembered Cyrea’s
and his first week together. Only a week’s leave? It was surely not
nearly enough.

“But on the
positive side we did confirm that neither of you would suffer any
harm from it!” David had a difficult time trying to keep a straight
face about then and Ayer didn’t even bother trying and his peals of
laughter were a joy in their open aired prison.

“It looks like
your wife may be even further along than Cyrea, so you may still
win a first.” Which truthfully David wouldn’t mind. Every first
they made, was another thing that kept them in the public eye.
Cyrea and he didn’t need it.

“Ahh no,
actually Sarel’s only about two and a half months along.” David
stared at her shocked, wondering how on Earth, or any other planet
for that matter, she could be so large so soon. But he didn’t want
to ask, thinking it might be offensive. It would have been better
if Ayer hadn’t been sniggering in the background, making him think
that there was something else he was missing.

“And now the
fourth musketeer’s arriving I see.” Looking around, David noticed
Heather and a Leinian man who he assumed must be Dafi, arriving.
Heather showed no obvious sign of impending motherhood, but the
fact that she was here told him she too must be in the club as it
were.

He shook Dafi’s
hand too as he arrived, while Heather went off to join the women.
And then the four of them watched in amusement as the women's
respectable conversation turned into a hen party. There was
giggling and hand holding, some rubbing of each other’s stomachs
and from the little they could hear and the furtive glances their
way, complaints about their men. But they carefully said nothing.
Besides it was so good to see Cyrea finally enjoying herself even
in the midst of this chaos that David didn’t want to upset her.

Instead he
turned back to ask the others some of the more pertinent questions,
when all thought of speech was taken out of his hands. Ayn Lar and
a few of his security officers had arrived, and they wanted
everyone’s attention. They got it. Among the passengers there was
no one who didn't turn to them and wait impatiently to hear what
they said.

David though
couldn't help but notice that more was going on than he could see.
For a start Lar's first officer seemed to be listening to a little
voice in his ear, and he quickly spotted the receiver. But who was
he listening to? Everyone was here, weren't they? He scanned the
crowd and noticed easily half a dozen other security officers
standing still, keeping watch over them. Why? But they weren't
watching the audience so much as the depot. And when he put that
together with the purposeful way in which they'd walked and taken
up positions, he could only assume that it meant that they had a
plan.

He was suddenly
as silent as the rest.

“People, you’re
all going home, but not for a little while.” Lar’s words drew his
and everyone else’s attention like a magnet and the sudden indrawn
gasp of them all was deafening. Those were the words they wanted to
hear more than any others. Going home. It made even David's pulse
race. But how? Unless as he suddenly realised, their message had
got through and they'd got the word out. There could be warships
and rescue vehicles on their way to them even as they stood
there.

“We received
your transmission just in time and made plans accordingly. Plans
our kidnapper could never have imagined. Plans that we are about to
set in motion.”

“The only way
they can fail is if the Mentan finds out about them. So the only
thing I'm going to ask of you all is that you stay here, out of
sight of the depot and remain quiet, while we work.” With no more
than that he turned to his men and started giving them orders while
the rest of them stood there, apparently forgotten. That apparently
was the entire speech, short, sweet and to the point. But it was
still the best speech David had ever heard. It was the same for
everyone else, and all around he could see smiles and occasionally
hear spontaneous outbursts of laughing, crying and clapping.

Meanwhile David
couldn’t help but wonder what their plan was. Curiosity was as
natural to him as breathing. So was observation, and he couldn't
stop staring as he saw Lar had put on some weight since the last
time he’d seen him. In fact quite a lot of weight in a mere two or
three months. In fact it was beginning to look as though he
personally was joining the motherhood club. Beside him the other
officers were also looking a little chubby. Standards had really
started slipping in security since they'd been away.

Several of the
other officers came running at the group shortly after that,
carting fallen trees and bushes, and anything else they could find
that was both bulky and light, and they quickly began building a
wall of scrub around the depot. Soon they were joined by others and
as David watched he saw the wall growing higher and thicker before
his eyes. He understood the why only too well. It was the same
reason that they'd built one around their meeting area. They
assumed that the depot was bugged. In time, once the wall was high
enough and thick enough, the spiders were also called into service.
Despite the risk, they could drag much larger bushes behind them.
Then the nearer officers began hastily assembling them into a solid
looking barricade between the people and the Mentan’s supply depot.
It wouldn’t stand any force at all, but David realized it wasn’t
meant to. It would still do the one thing they wanted, hide them
from any cameras.

In sixty
minutes or less, a barricade had been assembled that was easily six
yards high and just as deep, and twenty wide, completely obscuring
the depot from them. More importantly it obscured them and half the
valley from the depot.

At some point a
decision was made that the barrier was thick enough and big enough.
The first David knew of it was when the first officer tapped Lar on
his shoulder, and nodded briefly at him when he turned around to
look. It was a signal.

Ayn Lar
immediately said something under his breath, David guessed he had a
microphone attached to his throat somewhere, and an order was
given. The officers around the depot instantly stopped what they
were doing and hurried to the meeting place. Phase two of whatever
plan they'd dreamed up was about to start.

But whatever it
was, it wasn't what David had expected. Lar started undressing in
front of them, opening his plastic jacket, dropping it to the
ground and then lowering his shorts. There was a round of gasps as
he did so. The Leinians were quite prudish when all was said and
done, and public displays of nakedness were disapproved of. But Lar
wasn’t alone, as the two officers beside him started doing the
same. Even they weren't alone. The men from the barricade joined
them and began dropping their clothes all around as well. And when
he looked over to Cyrea, he saw Doctor Sarel doing the same. For a
second David wondered if they might be engaging in some bizarre sex
ritual, though such a thing would have been unheard of among their
people. But all was revealed a few seconds later, as the officers
began removing their skin as well.

With a growing
sense of wonder for their ingenuity he realised that they were all
wearing false fronts under their clothes, and buried inside the
fake bellies, were all manner of components and tools. Around them
the passengers from the second ship began undressing as well,
pulling odd gizmo’s out of everything from their shoes to their
pockets, and as a group they began to pile them in the centre of
the circle while the rest of them looked on, bemused, shocked and
laughing, but above all hopeful. They understood what was
happening.

From the moment
he saw the pile of equipment forming, David understood exactly what
they were planning; they were building an interstellar transmitter
of course. But unlike the crude thing they'd assembled out of
derelict parts, this one would work. But how he wondered, would
they keep the Mentan from noticing once they started broadcasting?
Especially if it was a powerful transmission. Surely a few bushes
wouldn’t be enough?

He wanted to
ask, but quickly thought better of it. He didn't want to interrupt.
They either had a plan in which case they’d thought of it, or they
hadn’t and it was already too late. Either way he couldn’t
help.

Several of the
others soon began assembling the equipment, a complex and obviously
difficult job, while Lar sent off more teams back to the pods
they’d just deserted with some tools. In short order they returned,
carrying everything from seats and instrument panels to control
columns. But each of those pod items was quickly opened to expose
more hidden components, which rapidly joined the pile. They might
have been caught, but apparently they’d been well prepared for
their capture.

David and the
other fathers to be quickly joined their mates, unable to help but
determined to watch. Actually they couldn’t take their eyes off the
slowly growing structure. It was their hope for leaving this
world.

It was a slow
process, but one with a lot of willing hands. All of the forty some
new arrivals were put to work, having apparently prepared for just
this situation, and the technicians among the original crew also
joined in. Ayer clearly wanted to help, and David remembered he too
was a technician of some sort, but as Becky told him, he had
another more important duty; her. So he stayed put and watched like
the rest of them. But while he fretted David and Cyrea both noticed
how clear she was in the way she ordered him back to her side.
Becky was starting to become more confident in herself as well,
which suggested she was healing. That had to be a good thing for
both of them.

They spent the
next few hours watching and catching up. Of course the most
important thing was the babies on the way. Cyrea was as they all
knew, the furthest along, being just over seven months into her
term, while the others were only around three and four months. So
the others spent ages interrogating her about how it was going. Yet
Cyrea quite enjoyed it, mainly because she got to complain about
being overweight and the difficulty in getting around, and of
course, how David didn’t understand what she was going through.
That seemed a little unfair to him, but at least they all
laughed.

On Earth
nothing much had changed in the months they’d been away. The
Leinians were still carrying on with their mission, while the world
carried on unknowing. God alone knew how they hadn't been caught
was David's thought. But they hadn't been. Yet.

The geneticists
had managed to unravel the human genome a month ahead of schedule,
and were even now trying to come up with an explanation for the
impossible. How they could have the same genome as the Leinians. It
was something which both David and Cyrea were only too happy to
share with them. Meanwhile David’s house was being looked after.
Ayer and Becky had moved in after they'd left, until they too had
decided to make the trip to the hospital on Leinia. They had then
given the keys to Ayer’s best friend Myan, who had always wanted a
home by a lake.