Fear and Aggression (30 page)

“
Don’t we need to answer
the question of why they are here?” asked Zilnir.

“
We may not be able to do
that. But I see no other possible explanation—other than that they
are here. I do think that they must have Aspiria.” Priori
interlocked his fingers, calculating a plan of action. “Roloff, you
know Mayor Tinron. We must arrange a meeting with him for you. I
will begin talking with my colleagues tomorrow. Miigal, please make
sure of what day it was that you saw the vessel. We know that it
was seen last night. We will need to find the exact dates of as
many sightings as possible. I think that we can calculate the
orbit, once we know more.”

“
What will we do? Once we
know when the object can be sighted, what will we do then?” said
Pashlor, the second born in Aspiria’s family.

No immediate answer followed. It was his
wife, Veerantin, who broke the silence. “We will seek inspiration
from above, and help from those here, my dear.”

A million thoughts raced through Steve’s
head. He sat on his bed with his elbows on his knees, alternated
between rubbing his face and resting his chin in his hands, while
staring off into space. The irregularities of his mission, were, so
far, swallowed up in its successes. This irregularity, however,
would not lend itself to exoneration so easily. The Space Force
would not tolerate it, and in all likelihood, neither would public
opinion. They would tolerate politicians, sports and movie stars,
and royalty behaving this way; but not military heroes. He had been
told that the President had gone public with the information, and
that he was going to be a household name. Tammy, too, would be
extremely famous. Whatever happened from here on out, Tammy
returning pregnant with his child would be a major embarrassment to
the President, the Space Force, and to him and Tammy; this
situation was going to go very badly.

Still, he did not
feel
only
despair. There was within him a seed of excitement, and a
feeling of love. He loved Tammy, and he already felt some love for
this tiny child of his and Tammy’s. He considered a thousand ways
to get around the circumstances, but none were feasible. He and
Tammy would be disgraced. He would be a classic figure—the fallen
hero. Even worse, a full investigation could no longer be swept
under the rug. Every mistake made, or risk taken, would now be
brought to light. He would no longer be a hero at all; he would be
considered a lucky fool. Any further mistakes would be magnified
and prove his foolishness and incapability. Tammy would also become
an object of scorn and ridicule. He could take it on the chin, but
she—he could not bear to think. Time was on his side, but he could
see the end from the beginning, and no success or choice would turn
this situation around.

He had told Tammy that they would figure
something out, but neither of them believed that. She was
devastated, and it was his fault. Still, as he reflected, the idea
of raising a family with her brought some light onto the darkness
of the circumstances. Perhaps, with time, the controversy would be
forgiven, and their place in history would be restored. It would
not be pleasant, though, in the meantime.

He lay back on his bed, knowing that sleep
would be impossible, even while feeling overcome with fatigue.

***

“
You do not seem to be
yourself. Are you alright?” Aspiria put her hand on Tammy’s
shoulder. Tammy, who never sat down, was sitting on a chair in the
lab and leaning forward with her elbows on the counter. She was
lost in thought, and hadn’t seen any reason to hide her feelings
from Aspiria, as she would have done if any of the men were
currently in the lab.

Tammy looked up and over to her, and gave
Aspiria a half smile. She put her hand up and onto Aspiria’s hand
still resting on her shoulder. “I’m fine. Thank you.”

Aspiria looked at her knowingly for a few
moments and then sat beside her. “Tell me about your child,” Tammy
asked.

“
Caryell,” she said with a
smile that faded quickly into worn concern. She forced her smile
back again. “He is thirteen now. He is a very good young man. He is
a good student, and he is very helpful to his father and me. I
struggled for many years, with no success, in having a child.
Roloff and I prayed many times that we could have children. I
thought that we might have a large family, but then I worried that
we may have no children. Finally, after several years, Caryell
came. I had hoped that I would have more children, but I was not
ever blessed with another child. Now, I cannot imagine my
circumstances being any different. I am so happy with my Caryell.
He loves the outdoors. His father and he are great at fishing, and
they love to go camping. Caryell is good at sports, and he loves to
play ball sports with his friends.”

Tammy was listening intently at first, but
then her mind began to wander. Aspiria could see that her interest
was waning, and so she left off. The silence brought Tammy back,
and she asked, “Do many of the woman struggle to have children on
your world?”

“
Some do; I have a close
friend, Prianna, who greatly desires children; but her, and her
husband, have not been blessed with them. Others, though, have many
children without any difficulty. Is it different on your world—on
earth?”

“
No, it is the same; some
really do struggle, but others get pregnant by just a glance,” she
said with a tone of irritation and sarcasm; she breathed out
quickly as she looked up. Aspiria could see a subtle watering of
her eyes. She looked at her, somewhat confused. “It’s just a figure
of speech; we reproduce in the same way as you do.” Aspiria looked
down uncomfortably and nodded.

“
I want to see Caryell. I
hope that I may return to my home soon. I am learning so much here,
and I enjoy all of you very much, but I miss my family; I worry
about what they think has happened to me. If they knew where I was,
and that I am well, it would be easier.”

Tammy looked at her, gave a partial smile,
and nodded slowly. “I don’t know when that will be. In our reports,
we have told those in charge how good and helpful that you are.
Perhaps we will be told what to do soon.”

Aspiria smiled kindly. She was careful to
not enquire too often in regards to her future. Still, she did not
want to give the impression that she was satisfied with her
circumstances. This was the first time that she had mentioned it to
Tammy directly. Tammy was often difficult to get through to
emotionally; but today they were connecting on that level, and she
thought her request might be received better. Tammy’s response,
though clearly not honest, was still better than she had hoped.

Tammy was once again in her own world. She
was staring off, and was no longer interested in conversation. “Do
you need anything from me, Tammy?”

Tammy shook her head.

“
It must be hard, being
surrounded by all men. If you ever need to just talk, I’m here.
Sometimes the girls just have to stick together.” Aspiria smiled
and walked toward her open cell. She was feeling lonely herself,
and would have liked a little longer conversation. Tammy was
struggling, but there was no more that she could do at this time
for her. She would have preferred more privacy, but that was not to
be hers at this time. She knelt beside her bed and began to pray.
That was the one sure way that she would not feel lonely. She
prayed for herself, but also for her family. Then she prayed for
Tammy, too.

“
Is she okay?” Bob had
just entered the lab, and had brought in the meals.

“
I think she’s praying,”
Tammy replied dully.

“
Oh. They say
prayers?”

Tammy rolled her eyes and shrugged.

“
Hello, Bob,” Aspiria
greeted.

“
Oh, hey; sorry, did I
interrupt you?”

“
No. Thank you for the
meal.”

“
So, you say
prayers?”

“
Of course; don’t
you?”

“
Sometimes; it’s just
that, um…we pray to our creator…so, who do you pray to?”

“
I pray to your creator,
too; He’s my creator, also.”

“
How do you know that?
But…huh, wow, that’s cool. So, who does the cooking for you on the
planet? I mean, do you know how to cook?”

“
Yes, I am told that I am
good at preparing meals. I hope that my husband is getting help
with meals—with me being gone…”

Bob looked down, and felt ashamed. “So, do
you want to cook with me some time? I would love to learn how you
prepare food.”

“
I would be happy to. I’m
learning to like your food, but I do miss my food. I don’t know if
the food and the spices that you have will allow me to make food
the way I do on my world, but I can try.”

“
Hey, Tammy; can she cook
with me later?”

“
I thought that that was
Danny’s job.”

“
It is, but I’m helping
him today. I’ve got the next meal.”

Tammy walked over toward Aspiria’s cell. “Do
you want to do that, Aspiria?”

“
Yes, it sounds like an
interesting challenge.”

“
Fine by me; so long as
Steve and Danny don’t mind.”

“
Cool; I’ll be by in a
couple of hours.”

***

“
Are you sure, Danny?”
Kenny and James looked perplexed.

“
She knows a lot about our
world; not anything current, but she knows our biblical history—at
least some of it. She wanted to know if we are from the same world
as Jesus.”

“
It doesn’t seem possible;
but, perhaps we aren’t the first ones to travel to her world. Maybe
this type of travel was discovered eons ago, and they brought
bibles with them. Maybe some of those zealots were also high-tech.”
James was reaching for some type of meaning.

“
I don’t know. Couldn’t
she have read some of our bible on her tablet? She’s been studying
so hard to read and speak English. She is very intelligent, and
understands so much, so quickly. Maybe she’s looking for a way to
get through to us, so that we will let her go back
home.”

“
I showed her my bible
today. She was very interested, but she didn’t seem to be familiar
with it,
per se
.
She seemed to have an understanding that was different than our
understanding. She says that Jesus visited her world after He was
resurrected, and that He told her world about us. She says that
they have scriptures that tell about all of this. It seemed very
sincere; I felt something when she spoke. I believe
her.”

“
I’m afraid of what this
report will bring. A primitive species with minimal technology,
that is clueless about us is one thing; but if they know about us,
from whatever the source, that would be very disturbing indeed. You
said that Steve was there when she talked about it?” Kenny was
reflecting very seriously.

“
Yes, we were together. He
seemed upset, when I brought her back from reading my bible. I
didn’t talk with him about it afterwards.”

“
I don’t pretend to
understand the religious implications of all of this. But, it is so
strange that this creature is just like us, and yet, genetically,
completely dissimilar. Did you ever read Plato? Do you remember the
doctrine of the forms? Plato said that everything that we know,
everything that we experience, is an imperfect attempt at a perfect
form, from some celestial sphere. The perfect form exists out there
somewhere, and then we experience imperfect versions of it. So, I
may never be able to draw a perfect circle, but I try; and even
though I know that it’s not perfect, because I have an
understanding of what the form of a perfect circle is, I can
recognize an imperfect circle, as a circle.”

“
Kind of like a symbol
stands for something else more grand,” commented Kenny.

“
Yeah, but it is different
than that. It’s more than a symbol. When I see a chair, I know that
it is a chair. But chairs may look very different from each other.
Still, when we see chairs, we know what they are. Plato says that
this is because there exists, out there, the form of a chair, and
when we see any particular chair, we recognize it because we have
in our mind the concept, or form, of a perfect chair. Any chair out
there is just an imperfect example of the perfect chair
form.

“
So this brings me to
Aspiria; she is in the form of a human. I have never seen any human
on earth that looks just like her, but she still looks just as
human as you or I. She is in the same form as us—as humans. I know
that you were both on board the ship, but when we walked on her
world, we saw trees. They may not be genetically just like trees on
earth, but they were made from the same form as our trees. When I
saw her house, I knew that it was a house. Not just because she
came out of it, but because it looked like a house; it was in the
form of a house. I know what a house is, and that is what it was.
I’m not saying that Plato had it all figured out, but he described
a world of forms that was beyond the earth, and that we, on earth,
participate in this world of forms with our imperfect
renditions.

“
Now we have found another
world, and it seems to participate in the exact same forms that we
do. Everything is just like what we know and understand. We are
alien to Aspiria, but she is not having much trouble understanding
us and our ship. It’s like she understands, because she understands
the same forms that we do. We are connected—somehow we are
connected. Danny, you and Aspiria see some sort of spiritual
connection, and I don’t know about that, but I see that our worlds
are connected.” James was on a roll.