Come Alive Ch. 34

Chapter 34

Part I

Taggart couldn't sleep that night. Like the night before, and the night before that. Rupert was simply in too much distress and with that little door to his anxiety closet thrown wide open, Henry lay awake wondering when the same symptoms would come calling for him. Blues and Greens were coming and going at all hours now -- 'whatever the hell makes for an hour on this goddam ship!' he thought as he turned away from Rupert's thrashing misery once again.

Because at more than one point, usually when a half dozen Greens were leaning over Rupert -- all while looking very concerned, the outcome appeared to be in some doubt. Tapes had been wrapped around first Rupert's wrists, then around Henry's, but while Henry seemed to improve a little, Rupert appeared to be out of control, caught inside a brutal terminal spiral into darkness. Or was it a wind, getting ready to carry him away?

Then Pinky arrived. With someone, Henry had never seen before.

This, someone, was maybe a bit over a meter tall, and this smooth-skinned creature was riding in some kind of hover-chair as it came into their room, and when Pinky took this visitor straight to Rupert's bed Henry tried not to stare at the newcomer.

Skinny was an understatement, Henry thought, but its misshapen head was gigantic, its almond-shaped eyes bulged from an otherwise featureless face. And while it was obvious Pinky was communicating with this other being, they must've been doing so telepathically because the little guy was silent and motionless. And really, really disturbing, Henry thought, like some kind of nightmare had come alive...

Then the little creature stood -- with great effort -- and used a syringe of some sort to draw blood from a vein in Rupert's neck. When the syringe was full, the little creature injected the blood into a portable analyzer, then he sat back in the hover-chair -- again, with great effort -- while the machine did its thing.

And that was when Pinky turned and came to Henry's bedside.

"Who's that?" Henry asked.

Pinky shrugged. "If it has a name I am unaware what it might be. His group has been studying humans for many years, and it was decided we should ask them to help us understand what has happened to you and Rupert."

"What has happened? What does that mean?"

"This chain of events was not foreseen, Henry. Rupert should not be so ill."

"Will I? Get so sick, I mean?"

Pinky nodded. "Yes, your team feels this is inevitable."

"Will I...die? Is Rupert going to die?"

Pinky turned and looked at Rupert, then at the other creature, before turning back to Henry. "Rupert is very near death, Henry. You will be too, within hours."

"I thought you said this was a slow-moving mutation..."

"It was."

"You know...I'm not so sure I like the way that sounds."

"Neither do I, Henry. None of this was anticipated."

"What does it mean for us? Regarding the existing infective mutation you told us about?"

Pinky shook her head. "Unknown, but no other cases have been discovered yet, so this new pathogen may well be contained to you and Rupert."

"Gee. Lucky us."

"I do not understand your sarcasm, Henry."

"Oh? Well, take my word for it, Pinky -- it's an acquired taste."

"Acquired? A pun?"

Henry smiled. "A double entendre, I think you might say, mon chéri."

"What is it with you and France?"

"My mother was French."

"Oh? You've never told me about her, and so of course I've always wondered why..."

Henry shrugged.

"You are hiding something from me even nonw, aren't you, Henry?"

"What would be the point of that, my love? You know what I'm going to think long before I do."

But then Pinky turned to the Greens standing beside Rupert's bed -- they were clustered around the small white creature's blood analyzer talking excitedly about the results amongst themselves before one of them came to her.

"We need this protein," the Green said. "Do you recognize it?"

Pinky nodded. "Yes, of course," she said to the geneticist before she turned back to Henry. Only now she smiled warily before she spoke again: "Henry? Do you feel like making a little trip?"

+++++

Dina cut away the clothing around Tracy's left shoulder and quickly found the first bullet wound, a through and through wound in the muscle just above her left clavicle, and as she'd lost a fair amount of blood already Dina pronounced the need to get her to the nearest hospital -- "in a fucking hurry!" she added.

And that was all Mike needed to hear. He swooped down and picked up Tracy, then carried her right up the companionway steps, Anton and Dina following close behind...until Dina stopped in mid-stride and looked at Edith.

"Will you look after my grandson? We shouldn't be gone long..."

"Of course I will," Edith replied, smiling through her pain. "And thank you for looking after my daughter."

Dina turned and followed Anton and Mike out to the taxi stand, and Edith turned her attention to the boy and his strange new pup...

...only now there was something very strange going on between the two of them...

...Rolf had been staring into the pup's eyes from time to time, but now she thought it seemed as if the boy was imprisoned deep within the pup's gaze...

"Rolf," she said. But the boy did not respond; he didn't even blink an eye. "Rolf? Can you hear me?"

Again, no response -- so she reached out to break contact, to take the pup away --

Yet as she reached across the distance the pup turned and looked at her, then she felt her hands fall to her side and an overwhelming sleepiness came over her...then she thought she saw the dog smiling as she drifted away...

+++++

Henry was seated in a hover-chair, waiting on a platform that vaguely resembled what he thought he might find at a railway station in the U.K. or France, only there were no tracks, at least none he could discern. Pinky and a Blue were flanking him, a Green manning the controls of his chair, and when he looked around he noticed -- for the first time -- that this ship was a kind of city and that one helluva a lot of people lived here. There were dozens of Them standing on both sides of the platform -- Blues and Greens, and even a sprinkling of Reds, too -- but not one other Pink, and he might have wondered why if not for the fact that everyone on the platform was staring at -- directly at him.

Indeed, he soon felt a little like a bug under a magnifying glass. Very small, and definitely very fragile. And even though Pinky was there with him they hadn't really known one another all that long, and being separated from Collins left him feeling suddenly naked and alone. And then he realized that these other creatures smalled quite bad, like fish that had rotted under the sun for days.

But of course Pinky felt his insecurities and quietly she reached out to him. It was a feeling somewhat like comfort, he thought, like maybe the same way an infant feels when picked up by its mother. A warm embrace, the certainty of belonging in just these arms, and he turned and looked into her eyes.

"How do you do that?" he asked as he stared into her pinkish-amber eyes.

"I feel your need, Henry," she said as she spread her wings a little. "I don't want you to be afraid."

"Do you fly?" he asked, his eyes drawn to the spreading feathers of her outer wings. "I don't think I've ever seen you do it, you know?"

"Someday I will take you flying, Henry Taggart," Pinky said rather matter of factly, but then his Blue quickly turned and stared at her for a moment -- like he had been more than a little surprised by her words, and while Henry wasn't sure, he thought he felt wonder coming from all the blue creatures.

"I'd like that," he replied, and her smile made him feel alive, like within her easy countenance -- out here among the stars -- he'd found a precious, secret place. Then he felt an electric hum and he turned his attention to the 'railway' -- and he could see something in the distance that just had to be a train of some sort -- then all the varied dozens waiting on the platform stood back a little and seconds later a glass tube hissed to a stop in the station.

And then everyone simply stepped through the glass and found vacant seats, the Green maneuvering his chair finding a place to park him before stepping aside to let Pinky --

Before that could happen another Blue sitting close to him saw Pinky and immediately stood and gave his seat to her, then he turned and walked away -- leaving Henry to mull over Rupert's thoughts about castes and hierarchies within this civilization...

...then their 'train' started moving...

There was no discernible change he could feel, either, other than he could see they were moving now...

They were in the lead car and he saw there wasn't an engineer or any kind of operator up front, only what looked like an infinite stretch of roadbed disappearing in the mists ahead.

"How long is this ship?" he asked no one in particular, and his Blue must have thought Henry had been speaking to him so he leaned over to answer.

"The ship?" his Blue asked in rough, heavily mangled English. "Do you mean how long in time, or as a measure of distance?"

"Distance," Henry replied.

"About 1500 of your kilometers, I believe."

"Shit..." Henry muttered.

"Excuse me, but are you saying you need to defecate now?"

"No. Sorry."

"But is shit not a word for excrement?"

"It is, true enough, but it is also used to express emotions like wonder and anger."

"Really? How odd."

"You got that right. Say, you have a name?"

Pinky leaned over and spoke to his Blue, who nodded and smiled. "You may call me Bob, if that pleases you."

"Works for me, Bob. By the way, my name is Henry," Taggart said, holding out his right hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Is it?" Bob asked. "Why is that?"

But Pinky 'said' something to Bob and he quickly held out his hand, now almost apologetically. "Yes, nice to meet you, as well," Bob said, in suddenly pristine English.

"Good. So, 1500 kilometers, you said."

"Yes, and approximately half of the circumference is made of a translucent material that lets in starlight..."

"I noticed that, but as I have no way of telling time..."

Bob looked at Pinky, who just barely nodded. "Well, you see, our day is roughly thirty hours, so we felt it might upset your sense of time passing. We have your timekeeping devices in storage, by the way."

Henry smiled. "So, how fast does this train travel?"

"Train?" Bob asked.

"This...conveyance. At what speed are we moving?"

Bob shrugged, and as Henry watched his wings lurch he tried not to laugh. "I do not know."

"Where are we going now?"

But Pinky broke in at this point. "We are going back to Earth," she said. "We must find your friend."

"My friend? Who'd you have in mind, Pinky?"

"You will know, but we must hurry -- even so."

+++++

Mike came down the companionway first, leading Tracy by her uninjured arm, and he was struck by the odd pose Dina and the boy had assumed. Rigid, staring dead ahead, and with the little pup returning their intent gaze -- yet almost as soon as Mike gained the cabin the pup seemed to release them, and as suddenly both came to as if coming out of a light sleep.

Yet the roast goose was now on the table, dressed out with stuffing and adorned with sprigs of dried thyme. Anton's borscht was in a covered bowl on the table, waiting for his ceremony, while almost all of their Christmas presents remained under the tree, just waiting to be enjoyed -- but when Edith saw everything out on the table she almost fainted.

"What's wrong?" Dina said, coming down right behind Tracy.

"I don't know who put all this food out," Edith cried, "but it sure wasn't us!"

"Mom?" Tracy said, "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that goddam dog put us out like a light and that someone else was down here, putting all this food out, getting everything ready for..."

"Borscht smell good," Anton said, his deep voice grumbling with appreciative hunger. "What that in bowl? Round things?"

"Brussel sprouts," Mike moaned before adding. "I hate those things."

Tracy, still under the effects of a sedative, slipped onto the settee and slid over next to her mother, who now seemed quite put out that someone had set the table -- and done so quite meticulously -- while she and Rolf had been subdued.

"Are you sure someone was down here?" Mike said as he started looking around for signs things had been disturbed.

"How the hell should I know?" Edith hissed. "Something like flipped a switch and I was -- we were out! How long have you all been gone, anyway?"

"About four hours," Mike said, moving aside so Anton could help Tracy aft to Henry's old cabin, yet no one said a word when he did, not even Rolf. Tracy had been Henry's last girlfriend, so she could lay claim to the space -- if she so wanted to do so. Yet right now she was simply out of it...

But a few minutes later Anton and Tracy came back to the saloon and he helped her sit at the table while Mike started carving the goose, and even Tracy had to admit whoever had put this meal together had done so with real care to observe all the proprieties. Besides the goose -- and Anton's borscht -- there was stuffing and a large bowl of buttery Brussels sprouts covered in what looked like walnuts and cherries, and there was a large oval dish loaded with portobellos stuffed with crabmeat drizzled with Hollandaise...a real sailors Christmas feast...then Rolf noticed an envelope under his plate, and he carefully pulled it free and began to look it over.

And everyone else around the table looked at him as he opened the envelope.

He read through the letter, then apparently had to reread the letter again -- before he looked around the table.

"Well?" Dina said.

"It's from Henry," Rolf began. "He wanted, he wants me to read something to you after we finish eating."

"Nonsense!" Edith barked. "Read it to us now!"

But Rolf simply folded the letter and put it back into the envelope before he asked Anton to fix him a bowl of borscht, and the old aviator smiled at that.

"This special borscht," Anton said as he started filling bowls. "In church, um, in orthodox church believe that soul of person leaves this, um, place, in steam from bowl soup, and get last chance to farewell, um, to say farewell as steam rises to heaven. So important to wave, to fan steam over face, to over your faces, as says goodbye."

And everyone did -- except, of course, Edith. She scowled when she received her soup, then she took her spoon and stirred the heavy broth before she took a bite; predictably, she wrinkled her nose and pushed the bowl away, then she leaned back and looked up at the ceiling in disgust.

"It is very good, Anton," Dina said. "Classic ingredients, perfectly prepared," she added, and Anton smiled graciously.

"Thanks you, Dina, and thanks to Genry for new life he make me, for all help from you all. He special so many way. No word expresses empty feeling now."

Mike began preparing plates and passing them around the table, and while everyone ate they did so in silence, and it was as though everyone was eating this Christmas dinner with one eye cast to the onrushing wall of a dark summer's thunderstorm.

Edith, however, stared at her daughter with growing malice in her lingering eyes.

+++++

Even Henry could make out the landscape below. Coming in from the northwest, high over the west coast of Vancouver Island, then arcing across to Sidney as Pinky's ship zeroed in on Friday Harbor...

"Can anyone see us?" Henry asked -- and Pinky shrugged. "So, where are we headed?"

"To where you met your friend, the orca, once before."

"The...what? That whale?"

"Yes. That whale. You are joined now, after that night. He will be waiting for you."

'And you're out of your fucking mind,' Taggart wanted to say, but by now he was getting to the point where he knew it was better to just sit back and enjoy the show, to let the world unwind the way the world was going to unwind -- because he was -- finally -- beginning to realize there wasn't a damn thing he could do about any of it.

"You don't say," Henry decided on saying, and that caused Pinky to turn and look at him.

"I am not sure I understand that expression. I did say, yet you say I did not say."

Henry pulled at an earlobe and scrunched his nose as he tried not to laugh at her. "Kind of an old saying, not sure where it comes from, but it means something like 'Okay, I understand.'"

"Ah. You never fail to amaze me, Henry."

"Yeah? Well, I love you too."

"Like that. Why do you say something like that when you know and I know it simply is not true. You do not love me. Correct?"

"No, that is incorrect. As a matter of fact, I do love you, and quite a lot, actually."

This seemed to shake up Bob quite a lot, too, because he cast a quick sidelong glance Pinky's way before settling in for a long stare at Taggart.

"Why do you say such a thing?" Pinky stated, clearly not amused.

"Because love is a feeling, Pinky, and when I'm with you this is how I feel."

Bob turned away, appeared to start to solve a few quadratic equations in his head.

"Then I do not understand love," Pinky said.

"Neither do I," Henry added, "but I know it when I feel it."

"Is love like..."

"It's like friendship, Pinky, but stronger. It's like caring for a person, and wanting to be with them more than anyone else -- but even that is a chiché."

"You think of me as a person?"

"Uh, well, I'm not sure what else I could think, Pinky. Sometimes I'm a little in awe of you, but, by and large, I tend to think of you as a friend, and a friend I really enjoy being with."

She turned and looked at him, her head canted to the right a little.

Bob closed his eyes, hoping she did not plan on vaporizing this insane human.

"Clearly I do not understand you, Henry Taggart," she sighed.

But Henry just shrugged and grinned at her. "That's okay. Hang around me long enough and you'll catch on."

"Catch on?"

"Learn. To understand."

"Ah."

"Ah, indeed. Say, isn't this North Bay?"

"Yes. This is where you met your friend for the first time. He is waiting for you here."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I asked him to, and he told me he would wait for us here tonight."

"No shit...?"

"Are you feeling constipated, Henry?"

"Chronically. But I'll work it out."

"Work it out?"

"Yes, of course, because like any good mathematician, I'll work it out with a pencil."

Bob went bug-eyed and slithered out of the cockpit.

"Ah," Pinky said. "This is a joke, correct?"

"Correct."

"So...when you say you love me, this is a joke?"

"Incorrect."

She turned to the Red piloting the ship and rattled off something telepathically as the ship settled over the water. "The pilot tells me there are a few airplanes in the area. We must hurry."

"Okay...what's the plan...?"

+++++

Rolf finished reading Henry's letter to the people gathered around the table -- his Christmas letter, as he called it -- and Edith was the first to bust out in tears, holding onto her bandaged ribcage as she started to cry. Dina looked down at her hands crossed on her lap, then she looked up at Mike Lacy. She wasn't exactly sure what she felt about the Navy captain, but there were times she had feared him and that bothered her, yet she also saw something else in him. Something that attracted her, and Henry had probably seen that, he had had every opportunity to watch it developing somewhere, somehow, and so he had addressed a part of his letter to her -- and to Mike -- challenging them to explore the possibilities. To Anton, Henry simply expressed that he regretted not knowing the Russian for longer than he had and that he had felt real friendship for the aviator.

Rolf's part of the letter remained a private mystery, though, as after he finished reading Henry's "public" musings he stood and handed out envelopes to everyone around the table. Edith tore hers open a found a single one dollar bill; Anton quietly opened his and found a check for two point five million dollars. Mike opened his and he smiled a little, then pocketed the check. Dina and Tracy found seven figure amounts in their envelopes, but by that point Rolf had started handing out wrapped Christmas presents.