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reach across that vast distance and have Daniel and Sara on their ship at the same time. It was so mind
boggling, Daniel couldn't fathom it. Even Santoo wouldn't attempt teleporting across thirty light years.
Daniel thought back to a specific incident when he was thirteen years old. He had been outside, walking
through the grass. When he came in for dinner, he quickly fell into the dinnerside chat of his family.
Suddenly he looked down at his pants. There, slowly crawling up his pants leg, was a bright green
grasshopper. It was small, he recalled. Not even an inch long, but the sight of it terrified him beyond
reason. He began to scream. His father laughed good naturedly and then with a piece of paper deftly
scooped the grasshopper off Daniel's pants. With the grasshopper still clinging to the paper, his father
took it outside where he shook it off into the grass. Daniel felt foolish, but he couldn't help it. Now he
wondered if memories of his abductions by the Zeta had crept through as he saw the tiny example of
alien life on his pants leg.
Daniel tried to force these thoughts from his mind as he continued driving into town. He didn't want the
Zeta to know what he was thinking. This knowledge would only give them even more power over his life.
Thinking of nothing in particular, now, he drove down the road almost in a daze, so what happened next
was like a fist in his face: in a blinding instant the road disappeared and now he was sitting on a table in
the alien ship! His brain was spinning so miserably from the sudden shock of displacement, he felt
nauseous for a moment. They had taken him right out of his van while he was driving it! He felt no light
take him up. He simply disappeared from his van. Where was the van now? Had they let it careen off the
road and crash into the ditch? Or had they taken control of it and parked it on the side of the road?
Daniel looked about him, but there was no one else in the room. He rubbed his eyes with his fingers.
When he opened his eyes, there still was no one there, but he heard a strange clicking sound on the deck.
Something clicked, then shuffled, clicked, then shuffled. He had never heard a sound like this before. He
looked across at the door. What he saw there made his blood pound in his head. An insect-a praying
mantis fully six feet tall-stood in the doorway! Daniel began to shake; he couldn't stop. He thought every
blood vessel in his body would burst. But they didn't. Somehow he managed to control his fear. Even
when the huge insect crawled towards him, he kept his fear in check.
Now Saul stood in the doorway. He came to Daniel and put his arm across his shoulders. "I'm sorry
about this, Daniel."
Daniel could see the pain and disgust in Saul's face as the insect approached them both. It stood like a
statue, its huge compound eyes staring a hole into Daniel's soul. "Give it to him," the insect telepathed
intelligently.
Daniel was so angry, he was afraid he would do something stupid. He couldn't let that happen. He
thought of Sara and Eric and Rachel. He thought of Santoo and Chumaya and Roger and Steve. He
thought of his mother. Daniel gritted his teeth: these beings would not win.
Saul handed a small box to Daniel. It was black except for the top panel that was gray. Daniel had seen
this box before. The first time he had seen it was when the aliens had left it in his bedroom. He had tried
to open it, but couldn't. When he finally gave up, the box opened by itself. Inside the box were five blue
cats-eye marbles. These five marbles, he later learned, signified the age of both he and Sara when they
were taken on board the alien ship that first time. It was the Zeta and their maddening puzzles that drove
Daniel to the very brink of despair then. He could not allow them to do this to him again.
Cringing under the glare of the mantis, Daniel pulled up on the gray flap. It opened easily. Inside the box
were two perfectly round black marbles. He looked up at the black eyes of the mantis. Then he looked
back into the box. What did this mean? He didn't want to know.
"I am the boy's mother," the insect telepathed.
Daniel angrily threw the box with its two black marbles onto the floor. "The hell you are! You're an
insect! An alien form of life that has no relationship to my son!
"I am the boy's mother," the insect repeated.
"Daniel, I'm so sorry about this," Saul apologized.
Daniel reached out and held onto Saul's arm. "Just save me from this thing if you can," Daniel pleaded.
"I can't." As Saul stepped away from Daniel, the mantisse reached out with its front leg and with a deft
stroke ripped open Daniel's shirt front.
"Oh, God," Daniel moaned as the mantisse drove the claw of its leg into Daniel's chest. "Oh, God,
please don't do this. Please don't," he gasped.
He felt the claw turn in his flesh. What did this thing want with him? As he pleaded for mercy, the
mantisse began to change into something else. Like the changing image in a computer morphing program,
the shape of the mantisse body gradually became more and more humanoid. When the transformation
was complete, a full blooded Zeta being stood in front of him. Daniel knew it was the female Zeta that
was Eric's mother. Giddy with relief, he almost welcomed her.
The Zeta stooped down to the floor and picked up the two black marbles. Then it held the marbles up
to Daniel's face "Study-pay attention-learn," it firmly telepathed. Then it pushed the two black marbles
into Daniel's chest where the mantisse just moments before had ripped open his flesh. When he looked
down at himself he was horrified at the gaping wound. Oddly, it wasn't bleeding, nor did it hurt. But the
wound was real, and he felt the coldness of the glass marbles as the Zeta's four-fingered hand pushed the
marbles into him.
"You can't send me home this way," Daniel said frantically. "My heart is in this wound."
"Do you feel as if your heart is wounded?" the being telepathed inquiringly.
"No, but there's a wound. Please don't let me go home this way."
"Are you going home?"
"If you keep me here I'll die."
"What would you die of, Daniel?"
"A broken heart. I can't be separated from my wife and family." Daniel began to sob. He didn't want to.
He wanted to be brave and strong in front of this being-Eric's mother. The being put its hands over the
wound. Her fingers felt almost comforting to him. A warmth suffused through his body, and when she
took her hands away, the wound was healed.
He began to faint, then. As he fell off the table, he felt loving arms grab him before he hit the floor.
"Daniel . . . Daniel . . . what's wrong with you? Wake up, man. What's wrong with you?"
Daniel opened his eyes and saw Roger hovering above him. Daniel was lying on the floor of Roger's
hardware store.
"God, you gave me a start, Daniel. Here, let me help you sit up." Roger pulled Daniel to an upright
position. A customer came to him.
"Can I help?" she asked.
"I'm all right. Really, I'm fine," Daniel said. He wasn't fine. He wanted Santoo. "Where's Sam," he asked.
"Sam went down to the Eagle's Nest to get us a couple of chocolate shakes," Roger said. "He'll be back
in a minute."
The bell tinkled on the door and Daniel heard the familiar sound of footsteps coming towards him.
Santoo looked white. He was frightened for Daniel, and Daniel guessed that Santoo had telepathically
picked up on Daniel's fear before Santoo had even walked into the store.
"Jimmy," Roger said, "take care of things up front while we take Daniel into my office." Roger pulled
Daniel to his feet and then led him to the back of the store. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]