7.
'Come inside, try the pancakes' said the note beside him. Max wiped the sleep from his eyes. He was in the back of an SUV parked at a remote diner. He stepped out into the morning glow of a low winter sun. His eyes watered from the rush of chill in the air.
Jamie sat cross-legged on the SUV's roof. "Finally. I was freezing my ass off waiting for you," she said. Her dark hair flew on the breeze as she held out a cup of coffee. "Thought you could use this."
He eyed the cup uncertainly.
She seemed amused. "Seriously? You think we broke you out of an asylum just to drug you? It's just coffee. Girl Scout's honor," she said, hand on heart.
"Were you a Girl Scout?"
"No, but I like the cookies."
He took the cup if only to be more certain that this moment was actually happening, but didn't need coffee. She was actually here. That was more of a jolt than caffeine could ever be. "Sorry, I'm still just ... it's all a little wild to take in."
"I know. It wasn't how we wanted everything to go down. We just didn't see another way to get you and couldn't wait anymore – hope we didn't freak you out. Scratch that, I'm sure we did." With an agile leap, Jamie was beside him. "Fresh start, OK? Anything you want to know, we'll tell you. All the answers to the secrets of the universe are inside that diner. At least, all the ones we know. Hungry?"
Max looked at the open road - he could run, just flag a passing car and race back to Hanover. But he knew the truth lay inside the diner. Jamie offered her hand. Max took it, relieved that he could feel the warmth in her palm and followed her in.
The other two were in a corner booth scarfing down breakfast. Each sized Max up as he approached.
"Guys, this is Max. He wasn't sure if he should run, but he came in all the same. So I give him an A for bravery," Jamie said as she slid over to make room for him in the booth.
Max just stared at her in disbelief. How had she known exactly what he was thinking?
"Who wouldn't think of running after the night you had? Don't worry - you're safe," Jamie said with an impish grin.
"Jamie's right. We'd all be looking at the exit sign if we were in your shoes. I'm glad you came in all the same. I'm -"
"Vincent," Max said, as he slid in beside Jamie. He saw his own reflection in Noah's mirrored shades. "And Noah."
"Dude," Noah replied in greeting.
"This must seem bizarre – sometimes life gets in the way of our plans. Now that you're here though, I'll try to explain what we know – or what we think we know," Vincent said. His dark, curly hair and piercing eyes gave him the appearance of a young Roman aristocrat. He sat in a position to keep the diner in view. Relaxed, but watchful as he took Max in. "Let me start with this. Does an old amusement park mean anything to you?"
Max stared at him, surprised, and just a little guarded. "Why?"
"Call it your first test."
"I thought you were giving me the answers," Max said.
Vincent smiled. "Just indulge me on this one."
Max realized nothing would come if he didn't stick his neck out a little. "The carousel?"
"That's right," Vincent said, seizing on that, seemingly relieved. "Good. I take it you were – indisposed when you saw it?"
"You could say that," Max said.
"I get it. Forget about that. Listen, what happened to you, it could have been any of us," Vincent said.
Jamie nodded. Noah appeared less convinced.
"Tell me something, what do you think is going on?" Vincent asked.
"See, that's the thing – and this is just a little messed up to admit - for all I know you're just figments of my fractured psyche. Up until last night, I thought I had imagined you."
Jamie wrapped his knuckles with her fork. "Imagine that?"
The pain from the fork was no illusion.
"Assuming everything around you is actually here and this isn't a psychotic break with reality, what then?" Vincent prodded.
"If I knew the answers, I'd probably never have been at Hanover to begin with," Max said, glancing at Jamie, who poured sugar packet after packet into her mug. He was pleased to see no fork at the ready.
"Sweet tooth," Jamie said, spooning around her sugar with a hint of coffee.
"Fair enough," Vincent said. "All I ask is that you keep an open mind to everything you're about to hear. Your birthday's June 3rd. Before you ask, all our birthdays are the same. None of us knew our fathers and our mothers died giving birth. You could say we're the unwanted ones," Vincent said, motioning for more coffee.
Max didn't even bother trying hide his surprise. He closed his mouth. His birthday was June 3rd.
Jamie took the reins. "On September 3rd, eighteen years ago, all of our mothers disappeared. They were found three days later with no recollection of where they'd been. All of them turned up pregnant. Quite a coincidence, don't you think?"
If their mothers disappeared the same day ... had she just read his thoughts? He pushed past it. "Disappeared as in they were abducted?"
Vincent smiled, "The wheels are spinning now, huh? Tell me this, have you experienced any kind of strange phenomena lately?"
"Is that a joke? That's all I experience," Max said.
"Right, OK, I'm not talking about what led you to draw that city on fire. I mean something far worse. Something so painful, time just stops. You'd know what I mean," Vincent said.
"You're talking about something worse than the hot coils tightening around my head." He couldn't believe there was anything more painful than that waiting for him.
"Maybe it hasn't happened to him yet," Jamie said.
Noah smothered his toast in strawberry jam. "Why are you dancing around this?" He looked sharply at Max. "I'm sure what you went through was a mighty suckfest. But this – you'll want to tear your own flesh off to make it stop. It's like you're burning up from the inside out. Like your blood is boiling through your bones. Sound familiar?"
Max felt a trail of sweat and fear run down his spine. He shook his head. That did sound worse.
"It's a big day when you find out you're only half-human. You're welcome," Noah said.
It was hard to tell through the sunglasses whether Noah was kidding. But from the expressions on Vincent and Jamie's faces, Max took him at face value. "Do you know who our mothers were?"
"No idea. Wish we did," Vincent answered, his features softening. "I hope you know, it wasn't your fault. It wasn't any of our faults. We didn't ask for this. But here we are all the same."
"And our fathers, you're saying they're, this sounds so weird to say, they're –
"Something more than human.
Was that Vincent's way of saying they're alien?
"Yes," Jamie said.
Rather than ask how she knew what he was going to say, he went with, "Have you –"
"Seen them?" Jamie finished. "No. We just know they traveled a long way to create us."
These were the pieces he'd been missing all along. Despite it sounding completely unreal, it made sense. But he'd only scratched the surface. It was like he'd caught a glimpse of the answers, but they only shone a light on a much bigger puzzle underneath. "And they just abandoned us here with no guidance, no one looking out for us?"
Jamie moved nearer. "Actually, you're the only one who was left in the dark. We're not sure why. The Eye looks out for us. And here's what all this is really about," Jamie said, leaning closer to Max. "No bullshit. This atmosphere is killing us. We have to slightly increase the nitrogen level. It sounds worse than it really is ... aside from the dying part."
Their waitress, Wanda, according to her nametag, picked that inopportune moment to warm their coffees. Wanda glanced nervously between them and then moved off to safer ground behind the counter.
"I like her cankles," Noah said. "Is that wrong?"
Vincent ignored him. "But we know how to fix it. We just have to move quickly."
Max laughed, convinced they were screwing with him. "That's not –"
"It's not only possible," Vincent cut in, intensity in his features, "it's essential. Before you panic about what it means, don't. It won't impact other life on the planet."
Noah covered his eggs in a downpour of Tabasco. Life and death stakes apparently did little to take away his appetite.
Jamie took a napkin and dabbed the corners of her mouth. He heard her voice in his head, 'I know you don't have any reason to, but trust me – you're one of us.' She looked away as if the moment never happened.
"OK," Max said, leaning in. "So how do you plan on, I can't believe I'm saying this, changing the atmosphere?"
The others looked at Vincent. Vincent in turn glanced outside. "Up there is the Eye. It's our guardian. But it also has information. The Eye's located an experimental cloud seeder in Arizona. This one is special because it's mobile and can be operated from the ground."
Max just stared. Who would make up something like that – unless they were unstable as well.
"We're going to bring it to Mount Humphreys. That's everything, Max. We have no secrets." Vincent looked around the table, and then his eyes found Max's. "Forget everything else. You've been an outsider your whole life. Wouldn't you like to see who you really are?"
That was exactly what he wanted, even though he was more than a little unnerved about what he might find. "So, you like the pancakes?"
*
Kitamura sat in the back of the meeting room watching Jasper coolly handle the grilling from the Joint Chiefs. The Colonel didn't get nervous in these, or any, situations as far as Kitamura could tell. Whereas Kitamura had to separate his clenched hands more than once in the back of the room.
"What we know is that the satellite sent a series of signals to locations throughout Portland," Jasper said.
Four-star army General McPherson stabbed his sausage fingers into the air for emphasis as if poking Jasper from across the table. "Have you identified who received the transmissions?"
"Not yet, Sir, the locations have never been the same. But we do believe they made contact and left with a seventeen-year-old patient at the Hanover institute." Jasper said, holding his frustration in check. "It's an institute for troubled teens."
"A mental patient?" McPherson said.
Jasper nodded.
"Can we connect the satellite to any foreign government?" Admiral Kier asked, so softly it was a mere whisper. Yet there was an edge in his voice as if the wrong answer would have severe consequences.
"It doesn't appear so," Jasper said. "We need to consider the possibility that the satellite does not have a country of origin. At least none that we're familiar with."
"Are you suggesting it's a UFO?" Admiral Kier asked.
"In that we're unable to identify it, it is an object and it's flying, yes, Sir." Jasper said.
"Careful, Colonel." General McPherson rose, pacing the length of the room. "I don't care if it's from Moscow or Mars. An act of war was committed when it destroyed a United States satellite. It will be answered. How do you plan to destroy it?"
"For the moment, I'd suggest holding off outwardly aggressive tactics. We should monitor the Satellite and continue to decode its signals. And with a little luck, we can close in on whoever is receiving the transmissions and bring them in for questioning," Jasper said. "If we rush to take it out, we may lose invaluable data and access to technology –" Jasper began, but was cut off by the General.
"I didn't ask how you plan to coddle it, Colonel. I want it gone. Yesterday. You do have a plan, I presume?"
"Of course, Sir," Jasper said.
The poke it with a stick mentality always bothered Kitamura, but no one asked his opinion. Jasper glanced at him, and Kitamura brought the monitors to life. The schematics of an advanced space shuttle appeared on the screens. The name TRAILBLAZER inscribed on its side. "The Trailblazer is the first of NASA's new fleet of space shuttles."
"Trailblazer's never flown. You want this to be her maiden mission?" General Courvair, Air Force commander asked, wiping a veneer of sweat away from his forehead.
"I don't see an alternative. We're going to fit her with a device DARPA's developing that can replicate a controlled gamma ray burst." On cue, images of the indistinct satellite appeared. "Trailblazer will maneuver in range."
On the screen, an orb-shaped device emerged from a mechanical arm. Bursts of radiation traveled outward from the orb. The space between the satellite and the shuttle distorted. "It will emit the GRB, disabling the electronics on board the satellite. A missile strike will follow." Missiles rocketed into space, blowing the satellite apart in a firework display.
"Get it done, Colonel." General McPherson said. As the leaders departed, there was a mention of fitting in eighteen holes at the club.
"Kitamura," Jasper said, turning back to his attaché. "The game's just begun."
Whether Jasper said this for Kitamura's benefit or his own, Kitamura couldn't be certain. But it was reassuring all the same.
*
They drove in silence most of the day. Max sat in the back of the SUV with Jamie, every now and again catching Vincent stealing glances at him through the rear view mirror. Music, if it could be called that, spilled out of Noah's headphones. He must have had it on full blast. It sounded like a battle between chainsaws and sheet metal.
Max skimmed through the pages of his notebook that they recovered in the alley. "Are there any more of us?"
"Just us," Vincent said, "far as I know. Why?"
The amount of logistics involved in finding a suitable planet and making the interstellar trip were completely overwhelming. And if just one thing had gone wrong, all that effort would have been useless. "They went through a lot of trouble for just four people," Max said. "Maybe they're not here yet, but there's got to be more or –"
"Or we're pretty exceptional?" Noah said, somehow having heard the exchange despite his headphones. "But I hear you. It does seem like a long way to go for a roast beef sandwich. Or maybe four lives mattered as much as four million."
"Yeah, but ..." One look at Jamie and Max felt like he had just rained on their alien parade. He didn't have the faintest idea what their fathers were like or what mattered to them. Maybe one life was worth an interstellar journey to them. "You're right, I don't know what I'm talking about."
"You don't have to back down. Like I said before, we don't know all the answers. Let's follow it through," Vincent said. "That notebook you're holding – if what you saw was their world, maybe they knew they were dying. What if they just wanted to preserve life with what little time they had left and – not to make anyone feel bad – this was the best they could do. Maybe that's our legacy."
Jamie slowly nodded. "I'm not sure about being the best they could part, but being a legacy, that makes sense," she said, taking Max's notebook to skim through the sketches as if seeing them in a new light.
"It's why we can't fail. We're their last hope to survive," Vincent said, watching Max in the rear view mirror before switching to the left lane to pass a trailer.
Jamie paused on the page of Max surrounded by skeleton corpses and closed the book. "It's not like we're just test tube babies, well it is, but I don't think that was what they had in mind. I think it's more -"
"Like when Jor-El sent Kal-El to earth as Krypton was dying," Noah said, not missing a beat.
"Yeah," Jamie said. "One world was lost, but a life was saved and that changed the fate of another entire world. Maybe there's a little Superman in us."
"And a lot of Clark Kent in you," Noah said,looking back at Max with a grin.