Alien Collective (27 page)

H
APPILY,
it was the flyboys who stepped through, and extra happily, they were all equipped with ropes and harnesses.

Jerry shook his head. “We can’t leave you all alone for a minute.”

“All hell’s breaking loose and here you all are, enjoying mud baths,” Hughes said chidingly.

“Shocking disregard for what’s important,” Walker agreed.

“It’s a good thing we’re around to actually do the real work,” Joe said as he dropped a thick lasso around White, who moved it to under his armpits.

“And you’ve brought the animals in on it, too,” Randy said. “I’m ashamed of all of you, I really am.”

“The levity’s great,” Jeff said dryly. “But some of us are actually up to our necks in this stuff. Speaking for myself and the animals, if you pull the others out, we all go under, so don’t pull the others out.”

“Don’t make me flame you,” I added. “Though, admittedly, I can see you as Johnny Storm, Jerry. At least based on attitude.”

“I’m touched. But we can’t lose a fine member of Congress,” Jerry said with a grin. “Especially when it’s one of the only members we like.”

“Home Base is infiltrated,” I shared apropos of trying to get them back onto the situation at hand.

“No, actually, it’s not,” Joe said.

“Yeah,” Randy said. “It’s actually worse. Presidential order was given to Home Base to not assist in anything going on out here.”

“What?” This was shouted, or a variation, some with curse words, by everyone other than the animals and the flyboys. Even the princesses. Even Mahin. Happily, no one went any lower into the quicksand, but I didn’t figured we’d be lucky twice.

“You guys! Stop distracting Mahin or everyone’s going to go under!” Wasn’t sure any of them would listen to me, but it was worth a shot.

“Oh, relax, it was faked,” Hughes said.

“A very good fake,” Randy added.

“But it took Angela a while to get that cleared up.” Joe lassoed Chuckie and Buchanan who both followed White’s example and put the thick leather around their chests and under their arms.

“Meanwhile, we weren’t allowed over here,” Walker added. “Dome was on lockdown and the presidential order kept it locked, despite Serene’s screaming.”

“She can really scream,” Jerry added. “I may have permanent hearing loss.”

“That’s awesome, guys, but my husband and my pets are about to die, so consider me lacking in levity. And holding a flamethrower. Just sayin’.”

More shimmering and Lorraine, Claudia, and Serene stepped through the floater gate, followed by Melanie and Emily, Lorraine and Claudia’s mothers. They all had packs of equipment and such with them. “Actually, we don’t think anyone’s in danger now,” Emily said briskly.

“Tell that to the javelinas and Peregrines,” Jeff said. “And me. I’m not feeling all secure.”

“I can barely keep them up,” Mahin said. “And I’m all that’s keeping them above the surface.”

Serene shook her head. “We did some infrared and spectrum analysis from the Science Center—you should all just pull out without issue.”

“Seriously, Jeff almost popped a vessel pulling me and Mahin out and when he got us out, everyone else went down. I think this stuff has to be superheated in order to release them.”

“No,” Lorraine said. “It needs to be superheated to be destroyed. You can relax,” she told Mahin.

“I can still feel the weight,” Mahin said.

“I’d personally appreciate being really certain before Mahin stops holding me up,” Jeff said. “And I’m going to share that the animals all feel the same way.”

Claudia stuck something metal into the quicksand. She was near enough to be grabbed and pulled into it, but nothing happened. Presumably the dead sandshifter had to control that. So, one for the win column. She pulled out what was obviously a sample and Melanie took it and examined it under what I realized was a field microscope that was attached to goggles.

“You look like something out of a steampunk novel.”

“Is now the time for the Kittyisms?” Christopher asked, voice strained.

“It’s an alternative, eclectic aesthetic,” Claudia said. “A reimagining of history.”

“You should get out more,” Lorraine added.

“I think it’s quite cool, steampunk,” Melanie shared. “But that’s beside the point. This is now dormant.”

“Doesn’t feel dormant,” Tim said. “I still feel amazingly trapped.”

“You are, but we can get you out,” Emily said. “We just need—”

“Cool water.” Sent a mental message to Algar to make up his mind. Decided I was getting enough mixed messages and put my iPod back into my purse.

“Yes,” Lorraine looked impressed. “Good call, Kitty.”

“What were you going to do with the flamethrower, though?” Serene asked. Innocently. I knew she was faking the innocent and probably laughing at me. But she kept it all inside and had her Innocence on the Hoof look going strong.

“I was going to superheat the quicksand to get them out. Because it sounded like a workable idea at the time.”

“If it was still active it would have been,” Emily said. “Think of this element—which is not from Earth, but I’m sure we all knew that—as something similar to silicon. When it’s heated it becomes malleable. Heat it enough, though, and it breaks down and literally burns away.”

“Are the Z’porrah from a colder planet?”

“We think so,” Serene said. “It would explain why superheating this destroys it, versus just changes its properties. But that’s not the only possible explanation.”

“Based on dinosaurs and lizards, them coming from a warmer planet would make more sense,” Emily said. “But we haven’t spent a lot of time on the Z’porrah, and what little we had was lost last year, so they’ve been a low priority data rebuild.”

Wondered if Algar would agree with that. He hadn’t been happy with anything we’d done this past year, perhaps this was another failing on our parts. Now, of course, wasn’t the time to find out.

Claudia was on her phone. “Yes, cold water. Now. Or else I’ll ask the head of the P.T.C.U. to personally come see why you didn’t verify that ‘presidential’ order. Yes, she’s quite upset. I think the phrase ‘ready to put a cap in yo ass’ about covers it.”

“I’m so proud.”

“It was a lot easier to deal with Home Base when Colonel Franklin was in charge,” Lorraine muttered.

“Save that thought for later. And I do mean that I want us thinking about this later. But, you know, after everyone’s out and safe and all that.”

“Thanks so much, since I’m still in here up to my neck,” Jeff said. “But I appreciate Angela’s help. I’d appreciate everyone else having the same urgency. Right now, the only person who seems intent to keep me alive is Mahin. And I’m incredibly grateful for that, Mahin. Please ignore the others until everyone’s out safely.”

“Relax, Jeff, the water’s on its way,” Emily said. “It’s a good thing this was going on here. It’s night on the East coast.”

“Not that it’s going to stop all the accusations,” Serene said. “It’s bad. Cliff and Vander are trying to keep things controlled, but they’re not having a lot of success. And with all of you here, it looks like we’re trying to hide away or avoid the questions.”

“No one knows what happened?”

“Well, yes, those with the right clearances. But it’s not as if we can tell the general public that all of you were kidnapped and stuck in alien quicksand, now can we?”

“I suppose not. By the way, our enemies were using floater gates to get everything here, like the combine harvester and, I’m sure, the poor javelinas, too.”

“How?” Reader asked. “We monitor all gate activity worldwide.”

Serene jerked. “But not when the Dome is locked down.”

“W
HAT DO YOU MEAN?”
I asked. “We’ve used the gates when we were in lockdown. We do it all the time.”

“Yes, but it’s monitored differently,” Serene explained. “When we’re in lockdown, the Dome is considered our most strategic and vulnerable location. So while we can and do use the gates when the Dome is locked down, it takes itself off the grid, if that makes any sense.”

“It does,” Chuckie said. “The Dome becomes self-functioning and stops monitoring other locations, is that right?”

“Yes,” Reader said. “That’s why all airport gates are calibrated for the Dome—in case of lockdown, or any other emergency, they’ll still work to get our people to safety. However, this means that if someone’s using an unauthorized gate, we wouldn’t spot it.”

“They could run on a different frequency, too,” Tim suggested. “The Dome would spot that under normal situations, but under lockdown, it would become almost impossible to spot.”

“Assume that’s what they’ve done, because I saw shimmering, just like for floater gates, behind the dune buggy and the combine.”

“Should we even ask?” Hughes asked.

“I’d rather wait for Kitty to tell us about it,” Walker replied.

“Everyone’s a comedian.”

The water truck finally trundled up and a couple of guys in uniform got out, attached a hose, and, under Emily’s direction, carefully watered down the quicksand.

“Get the animals out first,” Jeff said. “And that’s an order.”

Reader nodded. “I agree.”

Once this stuff was wet, Jerry stepped on it. It held him and neither yanked him down nor trapped him. He pulled one of the Peregrines out. It slid out easily, cawed its thanks, and went to Mahin and Harlie.

I followed Jerry onto the now-hardened quicksand surface—it was like walking on wet sand at the beach in Cabo. Was fairly sure both Jeff and I would have preferred to be in Cabo right about now. Maybe later, if we all got a later, we could go there for a little family vacation.

While Jerry handled the Peregrines, I went to the Poofs. Harlie went small and jumped onto Mahin’s shoulder. The other Poofs went small as well, making it really easy for me to pull them out, especially since I did it at hyperspeed. Finished up and helped Jerry with the remaining Peregrines. Received much telepathic animal love, which was nice.

Poofs and Peregrines out, we now had to deal with the javelinas. Thankfully, whether they’d realized everyone was here to help or one of the other animals had calmed them down, they didn’t squeal or struggle.

Because so many were trapped and because they weren’t tiny, the javelinas required all who weren’t in the quicksand to assist, two to an animal. While the others pulled out the peccaries, I slipped lassoes over everyone else. Other than Jeff, since the only option was to put the lasso around his neck. “How are we going to get you out?” I asked him quietly, as I knelt down and stroked his hair.

“We’ll think of something, baby.”

“I can do it,” Mahin said. “Once everyone else is out.”

“Really, you can stop putting out the effort,” Lorraine said. “It’s all dormant.”

“You think so, but I can feel it,” Mahin said calmly. “The surface is hardening, yes. But the water hasn’t seeped in enough. Once all the animals are out, while you pull the others out, I’ll be keeping Jeff up.”

The other gals started to argue with her. “Stop it!” Everyone looked at me. “Look, this is Mahin’s area of expertise. If she says she feels that this crap is still active, then it’s still active. She’s the only reason we’re still alive to be having this argument. It doesn’t matter who’s right, especially since the likelihood is that both sides are. Focus on what you can do, and doing it quickly, and stop taking her concentration away.”

Dazzlers were, to a one, smart. And not given to a lot of arguing in the face of logic. They all closed their mouths, nodded, and got back to the business at hand.

There were a lot of javelinas trapped, so it took a while, even using hyperspeed. The sun was starting to set when the last one was released back into the wild. But they didn’t go anywhere, just milled around looking frightened and confused.

“Bruno, Harlie, can anyone get the javelinas home? I don’t know where they came from, but it wasn’t right here. There’s a good chance they came from far away, and were herded through a floater gate.” Bruno squawked and bobbed his head. Harlie mewled, and then, all the Poofs, and all the javelinas, disappeared.

“What are they doing?” Jeff asked.

“The Poofs will take the javelinas home and scout the area, to see if they can spot anything, like where our enemies are hanging out.”

“Good initiative,” White said.

“How are we getting everyone out at once?” I asked. “Or are we doing it one at a time again?”

“It’ll be harder with the people, because they’re bigger,” Serene said. “We need to lift them straight up if we can.”

The flyboys all looked at me and shook their heads. “Tim, it’s a good thing you took over Airborne,” Hughes said. “Kitty’s losing her touch.”

“Heartbreaking,” Walker added. “How our mighty has fallen.”

“I’ll hurt you all later. Okay, fine, you’re going to get a plane and pull them out?”

“Helicopters, but why get bogged down by semantics?” Jerry said with a grin.

Claudia and Lorraine grabbed their husbands, Joe grabbed Hughes, Randy grabbed Walker, and they all took off.

“Jerry, you’re not going?”

“Someone has to handle things here on the ground and you’re not up to it.” He winked at me. “We can only have a couple birds in the air anyway, since we’re dealing with a small area.”

The airmen who’d brought out the water truck backed it off under Emily’s direction. But she kept it nearby, just in case.

“Kitty, you’ll need to be off of the area,” Mahin called.

“I don’t want to leave you here.” Kissed Jeff’s forehead.

“It’ll be okay, baby. I promise. And if I go under, I’ll hold my breath.”

“Good. You can hold your breath a long time.” He’d proven that when I’d taken an impromptu swim in the Potomac, after all.

Kissed his forehead again, then trotted over to join Mahin, Melanie, and Emily on the rocks, which timed out nicely, as the helicopters arrived.

Lines were lowered and Jerry attached them to everyone other than Jeff. Christopher, White, Rahmi, Rhee, and Tim were hooked to one chopper, while Chuckie, Buchanan, Tito, Gower, and Reader were hooked to the other.

The wind from the choppers was intense and my worry about Jeff increased. He couldn’t take a deep breath before going under if he had sand and dirt flying into his face.

Jerry got off the now mostly solid quicksand and gave the all-clear sign. He stayed down there just in case.

The choppers lifted up at the same time and everyone pulled out easily, looking like we had a lot of human fish on the lines. The choppers flew off slowly, in opposite directions, so they could lower their charges and not interfere with Mahin and Jeff.

Which was good because Jeff was still stuck, and I could tell that Mahin was struggling. Sure enough, Jeff went under. Managed not to scream, but only because I was too frightened.

Leaped behind Mahin and held her. “Melanie, Emily, touch her! Mahin needs our energy or Jeff’s going to die!”

They did as requested. Mahin shuddered, then tensed her whole body. Jeff shot up, with the same sucking sound Mahin and I had made. “Hold her up!” I shouted to Melanie and Emily as I took off.

Got to where Jeff was landing at the same time as Jamie’s Poof, Mous-Mous, did. Considering the Poof had been, to my knowledge, in the Science Center until a second ago, this was both a relief and a shock.

Mous-Mous went large and shoved me out of the way as Jeff landed on the Poof. “Ooof!”

“Are you okay? Jeff? Mous-Mous?”

Jeff slid off and Mous-Mous went back to small. It jumped onto Jeff’s shoulder and nuzzled him, then jumped to my shoulder and nuzzled me. It was fine, thanks for asking. With a purr, it disappeared, presumably heading right back to Jamie.

I grabbed Jeff and hugged him tightly, which wasn’t that easy since I still had on both my purse and the flamethrower. Didn’t care.

Jeff kissed me, deeply. As always, fantastic. Not long enough, but then, an hour straight of kissing him really wasn’t long enough. “Thanks, baby,” he said softly, as he ended our kiss. “Always nice to know that you care.”

“You know I do. You can’t drown in quicksand on me. Especially not when we haven’t had sex since the night before.”

Jeff grinned. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your laser focus on the priorities.”