The Space Between (32 page)

"Anyone who attacks us like they did
deserves to be treated as such."

"We can't understand the motives of people
on the other side of our own world, and you expect me to believe we
can understand the motives of aliens?" Kim held up a stalling hand.
"Airman, we could go around in circles with this all night. Why
don't you tell us all something interesting?"

"Okay. Well, the giant statues on Easter
Island? You know the ones?"

Kim pulled her thoughts away from the aliens
and nodded. "Yeah, of course. In general."

"Well, they're called 'moai'."

"Tuki's people are called moai, right?"

Dongoske nodded. "But wait, there's more. My
people, the Hopi Indians, who were based to the southeast of here,
have legends about our ancestors arriving from other worlds by
climbing up through holes in the ground. Our traditional religion
is based around that idea with most ceremonies carried out in an
underground chamber called a Kiva."

"Kiva is the name of Tuki's world," Meledrin
said.

"Correct. So, suddenly, ancient legends take
on a whole new light. Here we are, within a few meters of an
underground gateway to a world called Kiva."

"But the Indian cultures aren't that old,
are they?"

"They're a few thousand years old, but no,
nowhere near the kind of timespans we're talking about here. We
aren't saying that the Hopi really crossed from another world, but
their legends had to start somewhere, and the coincidences are
starting to build up. The predecessors of the Hopi were called the
Anasazi, a word that means 'ancient ones' or 'lost ones' depending
on who you ask."

"What about Roswell? That's around here
somewhere, isn't it?"

Dongoske laughed. "Roswell
is in New Mexico, not that close to here, but still within the Hopi
and Anasazi regions. But, a spaceship did
not
crash there in 1954. A weather
balloon crashed." He smiled at the look of disappointment on Kim's
face. "However, when the Air Force went to investigate the claims
of a spaceship crashing, they did come across
something."

"A spaceship?"

Dongoske smiled some more. "Yes. It was made
from an amazing material, some type of metal we've never seen. At
least we think it's metal. It still looks brand new today. The
bodies weren't inside the ship, but they were all protected in an
almost airtight hangar. Those famous pictures of the creatures were
real, but most of the public misunderstanding revolved around the
fact that they thought the ship had just crashed. The bodies were
dated at around fifty thousand years."

"Fifty thousand?"

"Yes. And who knows what that amount of time
will do to a corpse in those conditions? Certainly no one around
here. It wasn't until recently that we were able to discover for
sure that they are — were — human."

"You're kidding?"

"Nope. DNA testing and other stuff says
they're human. In fact, they're probably more human than we
are."

"How can you be more human than a
human?"

"Two cars coming off a
production line one after the other won't be
exactly
the same. They both look
perfect, they both run perfect, but they're still different.
Neither of them will match the plan, but one'll be closer than the
other. We still don't know what the whole plan looks like with
humans, but we know enough to know that nobody matches it
perfectly."

"And those creatures were human?'

Dongoske pointed at Keeble. "About his size,
actually. And we already know that Keeble, Meledrin, and Tuki are
human as well. Though Tuki does have an extra layer in his skull
but we'd need to examine it before we know anything for sure."

"I wouldn't even bother asking for
permission if I was you. He won't mind." Kim smiled, and Dongoske
ignored her.

"The others are also human."

"The others?"

Dongoske looked uncomfortable. "Some others
from Tuki's world. We had a bit of a confrontation. It wasn't our
fault though."

"Of course not."

"The point is, they're all human."

Kim turned to look at Keeble. "And what does
that tell us?"

Dongoske shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Fair enough. But if there were people
around fifty thousand years ago, wouldn't we have found more
evidence?"

"Perhaps. But we now know that there are
other habitable worlds out there. Who says these people lived here
and not out there?" He gestured vaguely. "Maybe they just
visited."

"So the earth was just one huge camping
ground."

Dongoske laughed. "Perhaps. Perhaps. Or
maybe they had only just discovered Earth and hadn't gotten around
to settling it yet. There could be any number of reasons. They
found those hobbit, halfling skeleton things in Indonesia a few
years back. Who knows what else is just lying around waiting to be
discovered."

Kim nodded. "I suppose. Is the Roswell ship
here? Can I see it?"

Dongoske laughed. "Not a chance. I've never
seen it. Very few people are allowed down there. Probably no more
than a hundred people have seen it since it arrived."

"Awww, come on. What harm could it do? I
wouldn't try to steal it or anything."

"Not while anyone was looking, anyway."

"Exactly."

"Maybe Meledrin or Tuki or Keeble can work
out something about it. Well, Tuki or Keeble." She looked at the
moai. "Maybe Keeble can work something out."

"We haven't been able to
get into it, so unless he has the the keys? Or maybe he can pick
the lock? I think
we
could pick the lock if we could find it." He shook his head.
"You aren't going to see the ship, Kim. Change the
subject."

22: Long Day

"Okay. What's happening on Sherindel?" Kim
said. "Are you helping the elves?"

"How would I know, Miss McLean? You know
it's unlikely my superiors will tell me anything, even if the
British army is passing on intelligence. For all I know the elves
and dwarves are fighting on their own."

At the mention of the word 'dwarves',
amongst all the other babble, Kim saw Keeble pause in his mumbling
and look at Dongoske. When the soldier said nothing more, the dwarf
returned to his inspection of the wall.

"So," Kim said, trying to rein in her
thoughts, "how long are we going to be kept here? I've no doubt you
have no qualms about keeping enemies locked away without trial, but
what about people who came to you and offered their help?" Kim
didn't blame the Americans for what they were doing, but that
didn't mean she had to like it. And it didn't mean she thought it
was the absolute best course of action.

Dongoske returned Kim's
gaze. "My superiors will lock up anyone, friend or foe, if they
think it'll gain them an advantage in war. And we
are
at war, Kim, though
it may not look like it most of the time."

"And the enemy is learning, Airman, aren't
they?"

"Yes. Those bats of theirs can survive in a
void, for hours at a time apparently. So now they just stay up in
space and attack from there. They took out a lot of our satellites
early on and now there isn't a lot we can do to retaliate, to tell
you the truth. Not a lot that's having any success anyway."

"To tell me the truth? Surely you don't want
to do that!"

"Kim, we are just doing what we have to do
to survive."

"Yes, but the American definition of
survival is different from that of any other people."

"You don't like us much, do you?"

"Nothing against Americans as individuals, a
lot of great people — hell, I'm one myself half the time — but as a
group, as a nation..." She left the thought unfinished.

"Do you want to know what Americans think of
Australians?"

"Not a lot, I imagine. Too busy thinking of
themselves." Kim smiled slightly. "Do you know why I left the
army?"

Dongoske paused for a moment, as if unsure
whether to answer. "I haven't read the reports in detail."

"I jumped before I was pushed. I have a
problem with authority, Airman. I had a few confrontations with
superior officers over the years. They generally started with me
telling them they were idiots in one way or another. And to this
day, I'm sure I was right every time." She paused and held up her
hand. "Okay, not every time, but most of them. So, don't get me
wrong, it isn't just America I have a problem with. Australia's as
bad. As a group, Australians are a hypocritical self-centered mob,
and the government is about as pathetic as they get, and we all
know they can get pretty pathetic. It's just that the American
government has my attention at the moment."

"We're saving the world here, Kim. Isn't
that worth something?"

"Of course it is. It's worth a damn lot and
a lot of people, including myself, would be willing to thank you
for it. But how would you feel in my situation, Airman? How about I
tell you. You'd be scared, tired, and pissed off. I went to your
government to offer assistance, but nobody believes me." Kim paused
for a moment and gestured to the others in the room. "You have
three aliens in this room, Airman. Three people, humans apparently,
that have so much to offer, and yet the first thing you do is lock
them up. Did you ever think that they might do everything they can
to help of their own free will? That all of us would? Keeble is
probably over there trying to work out if he'd rather be ruled by
us or the aliens."

Meledrin spoke. "Actually, he is trying to
work out whether he should stay in this room or go somewhere else.
It is quite a heated discussion he is having."

Airman Dongoske smiled, seeming to relish
this interruption. "And where would he go?"

"Anywhere, I would think. He loves caves,
Airman, but has decided that your people did not make these ones
and that they have tainted them."

"He really says that?"

"Yes."

"And how does he know?"

"These are caves, Airman. Stone. And Keeble
is a dwarf. More than that I cannot explain. More than that does
not need to be explained."

* * *

Kim knew it probably wasn't
a good idea to fight with Airman Dongoske. She quite liked the man,
but he was working for her captors. And she
was
tired and scared and pissed off.
She had every right to be. If the Australian or British governments
were holding her, she'd feel exactly the same way and would shout
just as loudly. She could see how the situation might look to them
— the world was being attacked, and they couldn't risk any resource
being wasted — but it didn't make her feel better.

Dongoske had hung around and chatted for an
hour. When it became obvious he wasn't going to get a lot of useful
information, he left. Perhaps she was supposed to think there was
no reason to hide anything and that Dongoske was her friend.

When Dongoske and his superiors returned
early the next morning, Kim had just about had enough. Tuki rose
from his position on the floor and walked over to one of the beds,
the only seat large enough to accommodate him comfortably. Meledrin
reluctantly made room, moving slightly to let him sit in the
corner. But Kim wasn't going to let this continue.

"Meledrin, tell Tuki that, no matter what
question's asked, he's to answer with the words 'I won't say
anything else until I speak with my lawyer'."

"Why?"

"Just tell him to do that. And you do the
same thing."

"'I will not say anything else until I speak
with my lawyer'?"

"That's right."

"I know what a lawyer is, Kim, but Tuki does
not have a word to match."

"Legal representative? Law makers' conduit,
maybe. I don't know. Use the word 'lawyer'. I don't care, just
think of something."

"Very well. And who is our lawyer? Do we
have a lawyer?"

"I have a lawyer friend in Seattle. Well,
he's not a friend yet, but if I got him involved in this case he
would be my friend for life." There was no such person, but nobody
else knew that. Or perhaps they did know — she was dealing with the
government of the United States, after all.

General Hilliard shook his head. "Miss
McLean, a Washington State lawyer is not allowed to practice in
Nevada without the proper papers."

"Yeah, well, I'm sure he knows enough to
advise us. And he'll probably know some other lawyer we can use."
Kim smiled. "I assume this is going to be a long day," she said,
making a great show of getting comfortable.

"All right," the General held up a placating
hand. "As a show of faith, we'll return the Skyglass to Tuki."

Kim laughed. "So, you've
had absolutely no luck with the thing and hope Tuki will use it and
show you what you're doing wrong? You're so
tricky
, General."

"What would you like me to do, Miss McLean?
I have the feeling you'll twist anything we do to your own
advantage."

"Well, General, I have to take every
advantage I can get."

"Think what you like, Miss McLean." He left
the room with Dongoske and the other man close behind. A soldier
brought the glass ball in a moment later and carefully set it on
the table on a little polished brass stand. Tuki had the ball in
hand before the man exited.

Kim hurried over and laid a restraining hand
on his.

She glanced around, as if she'd be able to
see those who were watching, or pick out the listening devices.
"How does the ball work, Tuki?" she asked in the moai's language.
Even though she whispered she was pretty sure the Americans would
hear. But she figured that speed and clarity might be more useful
than keeping her language abilities secret. The Americans probably
wouldn't believe she could really speak Shoshone anyway. She could
hardly believe it herself, but it almost felt as natural as
speaking English.