Alien Salvation (21 page)

As the Kalquorians erupted in surprised
laughter, Tara and Lindsey rolled their eyes.

“Oh Aaron,” Tara groaned, flushing a
delicate pink.

“Jeez, Dad. Gross.” Lindsey made
gagging sounds.

Japohn shot her a sidelong glance as he
answered. “Ya socro drem vig pu mek gatnop?”

Vax went hysterical with laughter,
nearly toppling off his seat. His face was tomato red as he bent
double with hilarity.

Aaron grinned in anticipation. “Give me
the literal translation on that one.”

Rubbing his face clean of tears, Vax
crossed the space between them to sit at Aaron’s side. He bent to
whisper in Lindsey’s father’s ear. Suddenly both men convulsed in
unrestrained mirth, Aaron pounding the Imdiko’s back with his open
palm.

“I’m not sure she can bend that way!”
he howled, and that set both Vax and Japohn off again.

Lindsey exchanged a disgusted look with
her mother. “Apparently, men are slobs no matter what the
species.”

Tara sighed. “But they do have their
uses. I guess we’re stuck with them.”

Japohn suddenly stopped laughing. His
head came up, nostrils flaring as if scenting prey. Or danger. The
shuttle engine stuttered, smoothed out, then stuttered again. An
instant before alarms went off in the cabin, Lindsey smelled
smoke.

Bacoj yelled, “Engine fire. Prepare.
Crash ocean.” From her seat, Lindsey could see him frantically
punching commands into the computer before him.

Japohn grabbed a vee-shaped strap from
behind the back of Lindsey’s seat, snapping it into place beneath
her, belting her down. Vax did the same for Tara and Aaron before
returning to his own seat next to Lindsey. He and Japohn secured
themselves.

The straining engine went silent. The
shuttle plunged down towards the dark mass of the sea. Lindsey
couldn’t help herself; she screamed along with her mother to see
the ocean rushing up at them. Japohn and Vax each took her hands
and held on tight.

“No fear, Bacoj good pilot,” Japohn
said, shouting to be heard over the now ratcheting
engine.

“No fear my ass!” Lindsey shrieked, and
the water was all she saw now, hurtling towards them faster than
she could think. A loud boom made her ears pop as they hit, and she
was jerked hard in her seat despite Japohn and Vax clutching her.
They were plunged into darkness as the vid and lighting failed.
Blind now, Lindsey felt the shuttle bounce up and down. Her
parents’ cries rang in her ears.

Then all seemed to go still, leaving
her gasping. Lindsey listened to her heart pound. The shuttle
groaned all around her, and there was the sound of movement and
footsteps.

“All unhurt?” Bacoj’s voice was the
sweetest sound she’d ever heard. Hearing him and feeling Japohn and
Vax’s arms still around her calmed her immeasurably.

She chorused “Yes” with her
parents.

“We sink fast. Under water
now.”

Lindsey went rigid with fear at his
words. She strained to see in the darkness, but there was only the
void to look at. She forced herself to breathe slowly, trying to
keep panic at bay.

She could hear Bacoj moving around as
he spoke. “Japohn we take door off. You take Aaron, Vax take Matara
Tara, I take Lindsey. Earthers keep wear restraints. Water come
fast, take you where we no find. We free you, take you out when
ready. Understanding?”

“I got it,” Lindsey said. I don’t like
it, but I got it.

Her father sat nearby, but for some
reason his voice sounded a million miles away. “I think my seatbelt
broke.”

Japohn released her. His footsteps, so
incredibly light for such a big man, told Lindsey he moved away to
her left. Towards the hatch. His voice was still steady, as if he
went down in the ocean every day. “Hold on very hard, Aaron. Water
rush in strong. Do no let go seat.”

Vax patted Lindsey’s arm. “I take care
Matara Tara now. You wait for Bacoj. You will be safe.”

He moved away and murmured softly to
her mother. Lindsey was left alone, strapped in her seat, waiting
to be rescued. It didn’t sit well with her at all. Not since
Jessica had saved her life in the aftermath of the tornado had
Lindsey allowed herself to be in such a position.

Bacoj and Japohn’s voices sounded from
the direction of the hatch.

“Ready?”

“Now.”

The high painful shriek of bending
metal filled the soulless black of the shuttle. It grew louder and
louder until Lindsey’s ears rang with pain. A deep-throated roar
joined the sound. The next moment what felt like a wall of concrete
crashed against her body. Through the dull pain she realized she
was suddenly under water, struggling to find the latch of her
restraint in the now silent darkness. Her hands scrambled
frantically over the strap, reaching down farther, but still not
finding the locking mechanism.

Oh jeez, I’m going to die. I’m going to
drown in here.

Someone grabbed her hands, pushing them
away and fiddling with the straps. They suddenly broke free, and
strong arms surrounded her, gathering her close to a warm solid
body.

Bacoj had found her, just as he’d said
he would.

She felt him kick, carrying her through
the unrelieved black of the shuttle that wanted to be their tomb.
How could he see to get them out, she wondered? Even his sensitive
Kalquorian eyes couldn’t possibly pierce the darkness. But he swam
without pause, and after a few moments the water around them
lightened. They were out of the sinking shuttle.

Bacoj swam up, bringing her closer and
closer to the light above. But her lungs were straining now,
desperate for air. Lindsey fought the vicious urge to draw air into
her lungs, the overpowering need to breathe. Her conscious mind
fought with her instincts, and she struggled to maintain control.
The water around her grew brighter, but the surface didn’t seem to
draw any closer. Gray mist appeared at the edges of her vision. She
was on the verge of blacking out. Her chest burned with a fierce
ache. She wasn’t going to make it. She wasn’t going to make
it.

And then they smashed through the
surface, into the sunlit realm of air and sky and air and seagulls
screeching and air. Breath screamed into her lungs. Lindsey whooped
in lungfuls, her head falling back on Bacoj’s shoulder as she went
limp in a half-swoon.

Between gasps Bacoj said, “Land close.
Hold on.”

Before she could answer, Vax and Tara
broke the surface with a huge splash. Lindsey’s mother sputtered
and choked and sucked in oxygen. Vax held her with his injured arm,
no longer pinned to his chest with the brace. Lindsey grimaced to
see how it bent halfway between his wrist and elbow. The Imdiko’s
face was tight and pale.

Bacoj called to him in their language,
and Vax flicked his eyes towards them. His gaze settling on
Lindsey, he gave them a suggestion of a smile and
nodded.

To Tara he said, “Float on top. Relax,
Matara.” Holding the still coughing but very much alive Tara
beneath her armpits, he stroked towards the nearby
shore.

Bacoj also swam towards the golden
beach, towing Lindsey. She thought about telling him she could swim
herself, but her limbs were still leaden from shock. Lindsey was an
excellent swimmer, but Bacoj plowed through the water much faster
than she could have managed.

Moments later he stood upright. Hefting
Lindsey in his arms, he waded through the surf to the beach. Just
as they reached dry land Vax found his feet and half-carried,
half-dragged Tara to shore as well.

The group collapsed to the sand.
Lindsey had a hard time restraining herself from kissing the ground
beneath her. The warmth of the sun, the gritty sand she laid full
length on, the scritchy-scratchy sound of the breeze in the palm
tree fronds, all were a blessing after the harrowing crash. As well
as her mother and the two barefoot Kalquorians who sat gasping on
either side of her.

Her mother. Two Kalquorians.

A stab of fear brought Lindsey upright
on shaky legs. Bacoj and Vax were up fast too, but she barely
noticed. She looked out on the ocean, its frothy surface showing no
sign of the downed shuttle or anything else.

“Where are Dad and Japohn?”

Bacoj was already running towards the
water. He dove in just as something dark bobbed up among the
waves.

Vax said, “There, Lindsey. They come
now.”

Tara wept relieved tears as Bacoj met
Japohn and Aaron in the water. The two Kalquorians worked together
to tow Lindsey’s father to shore, closing the distance at a
remarkable speed.

They’re fast. You’d think they’d take
it easy. Japohn was underwater a long time. Surely he’s out of
breath. Even supermen get tired, right? But look at them go, like
it’s a race or something.

Between them Aaron floated limply, not
kicking to help. Lindsey drifted towards the edge of the water. For
some reason, she could barely feel her legs.

Of course Dad’s not helping. He’s
tired. In shock like I was. He was under for so long.

They were almost to shore. The grim
concentration on Bacoj and Japohn’s faces was now apparent. Dread
became a leaden weight in Lindsey’s heart. When Japohn stood,
pulling Aaron from Bacoj to sling the limp Earther over his
shoulder and run the rest of the way to the beach in a blur of
motion, it took all she had to not scream.

An instant later, Japohn laid Aaron’s
motionless body on the sand. Lindsey ran to them, throwing herself
down beside her father. Aaron’s eyes stared sightless at the sky,
his lips blue, his skin bloodless.

“Dad? Daddy?” Panicked, Lindsey shook
him by the shoulders.

Tara was next to her, sobbing. “Oh
please, no!”

Getting hold of herself with effort,
Lindsey checked Aaron for a pulse. Nothing. She started CPR,
bearing down on his chest with all her meager weight.

“I do, Lindsey,” Bacoj said, gently
pushing her and Tara aside.

Nodding, she moved over to start
artificial respiration, pinching Aaron’s nostrils shut and
breathing in his mouth. They worked on her father, Japohn spelling
Lindsey when she grew dizzy from filling Aaron’s lungs with air.
Vax held Tara nearby, unashamed tears flowing down his cheeks while
she begged over and over, “Aaron wake up, please wake
up.”

Lindsey lost track of how long they
fought to pull her father back from the abyss. It felt like hours
passed while Bacoj administered compressions and she and Japohn
took turns breathing for Aaron.

She might have gone on forever,
clinging to the hope he would revive if Tara hadn’t finally choked,
“Enough. It’s time to stop.”

Bacoj sat back, his hands finally
leaving Aaron’s chest to cover his face. Lindsey’s mouth left
Aaron’s. She gently pressed his eyelids closed before curling her
arms around his head and letting go to grief. Harsh sobs shook her
body as she held him.

Japohn howled. “No! Father Aaron live!”
He resumed Bacoj’s halted chest compressions. Lindsey looked up at
the Nobek’s frantic face as he desperately tried to thwart the one
implacable foe he couldn’t defeat.

Tara pulled free of the sobbing Vax to
wrap her arms around Japohn’s shoulders. Stroking his long curls,
she whispered in his ear. “He’s gone, Japohn. You did everything
you could, but it’s his time. Let him go.”

Somehow her gentle voice got through to
him, and he gave up. He turned to pull Tara to him, burying his
face against her shoulder. The big man shook as he moaned. “I
apology. Water take him when door open. I look, cannot find long
time. Apology, apology. I fail, no save. Apology.”

Tara cried with him, rocking the
behemoth in her thin arms as if he were a child. “There’s nothing
to forgive, sweetheart. You risked your own life to find him. I
will always be grateful to you for not leaving him out
there.”

Lindsey crawled to them to mold herself
against her Nobek’s shaking body. “You couldn’t help it, Japohn. I
know you did your best.”

“No forgive, Lindsey. I fail
you.”

“No, Japohn. You found him. You didn’t
give up.” She pulled his sea-matted hair back to kiss his ear. “I’m
thankful to you for that.”

She didn’t know if he believed her. He
seemed as shattered as she felt.

Vax and Bacoj joined them, wrapping
their arms around the trio. The group huddled together, holding one
another as tears flowed from Earther and Kalquorian
alike.

* * * *

They made no attempt to locate the
Kalquorian search party that day though they’d washed up on Big
Pine Key. The heart had gone out of the little group. Even the
promise of being cleaned up, fed, and sleeping in soft beds held no
allure for anyone. Grief cloaked them in heavy folds, making it
difficult to function.

Japohn went foraging for supplies and
Bacoj managed to catch a few fish, which Vax cooked over an open
fire he built on the beach. Caring for Lindsey and Tara seemed to
help the Kalquorians deal with the guilt and pain. No one had any
real appetite, but as the day waned the Earthers ate out of respect
for the men’s efforts.