Trespassers: a science-fiction novel (9 page)

“
Let
’
s get started,
”
Dexim said, reaching for the bag on Jin
’
s shoulder. Jin nodded and handed it over, as they followed Dexim to the kitchen.

“
What happened to your shirt?
”
Jin asked, having finally noticed.

“
I had to use it to cover Tobi
’
s face,
”
Lyntic said, in a way that made it seem as though Jin should have already deduced that.

“
Right,
”
he nodded, knowing full well that he never would have deduced such a thing. Lyntic was very difficult to impress, perhaps because of her own extreme competence.

Dexim set the vaccination kit on the counter
—
a box packed with medical supplies. Lyntic reached across him and pulled out the instruction booklet from the inside of the lid.

“
Field Vaccination Procedures Guide,
”
she read, then flipped a few pages.
“
The subject must be sterilized by washing all skin surfaces, hair, and orifices with any of the following agents: Vinegar, Tea Tree Oil, Concentrated Lemon Juice, Hydrogen Peroxide, da, da, da.
”
She skipped to the bottom of the page.
“
Bleach should be used only as a last resort, because of the dangers and negative effects on the subject.
”

She looked to Dexim for a response.

“
It works,
”
he said.
“
That
’
s the important thing.
”

“
You used bleach?
”
Jin asked.

“
Just on his face,
”
Dexim said.
“
He
’
ll be fine.
”

Dexim noticed that something was weighing on Jin
’
s mind.

“
What is it?
”
Dexim asked.

“
The ship being captured .
.
. does that mean they know why we
’
re here?
”
Jin asked.

“
No,
”
Dexim shook this off.
“
It was just a coincidence that the ship was confiscated.
”

“
How do you know?
”
Jin asked. Lyntic was curious to hear Dexim
’
s answer as well.

“
Because they thought the ship was empty,
”
Dexim explained.
“
They didn
’
t even know we were on board.
”

This response comforted Jin and Lyntic. It even comforted Dexim to say it.

“
So, you think she
’
s actually here?
”
Jin asked.

Dexim looked up stoically.
“
We
’
ll find out soon enough.
”

“
But what if she
’
s
—”

“
If she
’
s here, we
’
ll find her,
”
Dexim said.
“
And if we don
’
t find her, we
’
ll keep looking until they tell us to stop.
”

Jin nodded as if he had just been given an official order. Dexim looked to the instructions that Lyntic was holding.
“
What
’
s next?
”

She pointed to the vial of blood in Jin
’
s hand as she read,
“
Draw fifty clicks of the blood sample into container zero. The blood must then be prepared by adding six clicks of number one to container zero.
”

Every item in the field vaccination kit was clearly marked with a number, and all the syringes were fitted with clicking dials that rotated to control the dosages. The step-by-step system made it simple. And after seven-and-a-half minutes of following the instructions, they had a vaccine.

As Dexim administered the shot to their quarantined patient in the bathtub, Lyntic made her way to an upstairs bedroom in search of something to wear. She marveled at the details of life on Earth: the handcrafted wooden furniture, the canvas paintings, and the felt-lined jewelry boxes. She ran her hand across the sea of fabrics that hung in the closet. The materials on Earth were vastly different from those of her home world. Visually, what stuck out were the oranges. There was something especially vibrant about the color orange on Earth. It had a depth and a quality that just wasn
’
t found anywhere else in the universe. She pulled an orange blouse from the closet and admired it. It would certainly do. And her skin welcomed the feel of cotton.

Inside Trino
’
s, a family-style restaurant, Mindy was sitting at a booth next to a large window, her eyes shifting from table to table. She was amazed that no one knew what she knew. She was experiencing a wonderful sensation of having a secret so big it made everything else seem insignificant. As Mindy watched these people, they seemed so routine and so undisturbed by the alien spaceship that had just flown over their city.

Her eyes shifted back to her own table where she saw New Guy staring over the crowd just as she had. She could tell that he was having the same thoughts. Then her eyes landed on Web who was perusing the menu as if he was studying for an exam. Mindy would come to learn that Web was captivated by food and that he was an amateur chef who dreamed of opening his own restaurant.

Mindy glanced out the window to see the SUV sitting peacefully in the parking lot. It could be waiting on a third-grade soccer team to finish its milkshakes for all anyone knew. There was absolutely no indication of the alien trespasser who was asleep in the cargo area. Stewart had assured Mindy that this trespasser would be sleeping off the sedative for a few more hours if no one intervened. At the time, she hadn
’
t thought to ask what
intervened
meant. She would later learn that a simple ice cube to the temple would revive him because of some effect on the nervous system, which was fully explained to her, though the explanation didn
’
t fully stick.

Mindy pulled her gaze back inside the restaurant and found Stewart swirling a spoon in his cup of hot tea. He wasn
’
t much of a tea drinker, but the waitress informed him that the coffee machine was broken. As Mindy watched him stir his tea, it was apparent that what he was actually stirring was his thoughts.

“
What are you thinking?
”
Web asked him. That
’
s exactly what Mindy would have asked, and she couldn
’
t wait for the answer. She was here to learn, and she was ready to soak it in.

Stewart looked up from his cup and took a moment to gather his thoughts.
“
I
’
ll probably just go with the chicken sandwich,
”
he said, without even the slightest tone of humor in his voice.

Could that really be the case
, Mindy wondered.
Could he have thought Web was asking about his order
?

“
I wonder if the lasagna is any good here,
”
Web replied.

Mindy suddenly realized that they were serious. They were so accustomed to all this alien stuff that they didn
’
t think twice about it. She wanted to scream,
Are you serious!? You were in a spaceship twenty minutes ago
! But she didn
’
t scream anything.

“
What are you getting, New Guy?
”
Web asked, in a way that made the generic pseudonym seem endearing.

“
I
’
m not hungry,
”
New Guy answered. He had the right look in his eye. He had the look Mindy expected from a person who had just confiscated an alien spaceship.

“
Me either,
”
Mindy quickly followed.

“
Order something, both of you,
”
Stewart commanded, suddenly seeming like a father figure.
“
You need to eat.
”
Mindy and New Guy turned to their menus. Stewart turned back to his tea.

Mindy
’
s eyes trolled down through the entrees, trying to find something easy to digest, since her nerves still had her stomach twisted. She knew this meal would be on the expense account, so she didn
’
t have to worry about the cost, but she didn
’
t want a reputation as the girl who always ordered the most expensive meal, so she kept an eye on the prices as well.
Spicy Chili .
.
. Pulled Pork, no thanks. Fried Shrimp, not even close. Tuna Melt, better, but no.

Chicken soup, yes that would do
,
and some crackers, too
.

Stewart was still gazing into his tea, stirring much deeper thoughts now. Something was bugging him.
“
Why weren
’
t there any passengers?
”
he pondered aloud.

Web lifted his eyes from his menu.
“
Ships don
’
t always have passengers.
”
He shrugged.

“
They don
’
t?
”

Web shrugged again.
“
Maybe he was picking somebody up.
”

“
So, you
’
re saying he was abducting someone and making a vaccine so that he could transport a visitor
off
the planet?
”
Stewart countered.

Damn, Stewart was making sense
. Web shrugged anyway.
“
Let
’
s just eat first, before we start with the questions,
”
Web was more interested in lunch at this point than talking Stewart down from another mysterious mission. Web didn
’
t mind indulging Stewart
’
s hunches, but he did mind when those hunches threatened to cut his lunch short. He had spent far too many days balancing food on his lap, bouncing down the road, chasing one of Stewart
’
s hunches.

“
What if someone was on the ship?
”
Stewart asked.

“
You checked the ship.
”

“
I could have missed someone,
”
Stewart said.
“
I was in a hurry. .
.
. Do you think those energy pulses could have been other passengers, bailing out?
”

“
Bailing from a moving ship?
”
Web scoffed.
“
No way.
”

This piqued Mindy
’
s curiosity.
“
How exactly does one .
.
. bail out of a moving ship? Or any ship for that matter.
”

Web perked up. He loved teaching and never missed an opportunity.

“
Ships like that one
—
transporter ships
—
have deceleration slopes, which allow cargo to be dropped to the ground at ten percent g,
”
Web explained, as if giving a miniature seminar.
“
That means that if you drop something from ten feet, it would be like dropping it from one foot. And if you dropped it from one hundred feet, it would be like dropping it from ten feet. It all works off an invisible pulse that dampens the gravitational pull on the selected object, but that object is still uncontrollably falling, just not as fast .
.
. just like when we dropped
—”
He swiveled his thumb around like a weather vane to point at the vehicle in the parking lot. Mindy nodded, and suddenly what she had seen was making more sense.