Ancient Birthright (19 page)

“To continue from where I left off, I hope we can get Beldon to transmit additional examples of fictional works. Even though they’re made up stories, the insight into human emotions and life styles is very enlightening.” The wall VH was once again synced with her report.

Dantee received many stares and smiles as the group left the meeting room. Domm Feuua stopped next to Saigg. “I think we need to do some testing. This little one is something special.” Domm nodded toward Dantee, who was waving good-bye to the team members as they left.

“I agree with you. She’s given us one surprise after another.”
Maybe Dantee’s precociousness will be the pivotal item that permits Domm Feuua to accept me as his daughter’s mate.

Dantee let out the high-pitched squeal that signaled she was hungry and wanted Mom.

“I better get her back. It’s time to for her to eat, and she needs a nap.”

Dantee again climbed to her father’s shoulder and surveyed everything of interest on the walk back to their quarters.

Renna isn’t going to believe this…

“Renna, we’re back,” Saigg shouted toward the master bedroom.

Renna came out making shushing sounds. “Reedn’s asleep. I think he’s running a fever.”

“Want me to call a doctor?” Saigg asked.

“No, it’s not that bad. He’s a little congested. I think it might be a cold.”

“Okay, the monster here has been telling me she’s hungry and wants her Mommy.”

Dantee jumped from Saigg’s shoulder to Renna and started nuzzling the skin flap covering lunch.

“Hold on little one, you’re old enough to start eating some of the softer cakes and sweet drink.” Renna went to the food dispenser and pressed several actipads. Amber liquid and a soft green rectangle of compressed vegetable matter dispensed in less than a truebeat. Renna placed them on the table and adjusted a chair to a height that would permit Dantee to reach the table comfortably. She placed Dantee on the chair and pulled the food and drink in front of her. She demonstrated sipping from the small disposacup and taking a tiny nibble of the soft cake.

Saigg leaned against the wall and watched mother and daughter. He smiled at the age-old tableaux of a luzzon female weaning her young.

This should be fun to watch. The process normally takes about a seven cycle and many sessions of spilled sweet drink and mangled cake.

Dantee watched transfixed at being shown something new. When Renna placed the cup back on the table, Dantee pulled it close and began licking the contents. Renna gently pulled her head from the cup and showed her how to hold it in her hands. She then raised the cup, placed it against the tiny girl’s lips, and tilted it. At first Dantee tried to lick the liquid when it got close to her mouth, but Renna continued tilting the cup until a small stream poured into Dantee’s mouth. With a look of surprise, she began swallowing the liquid in big gulps.

When the cup was empty, she looked at Renna and held up the cup.

“You need to try eating some of the soft cake. You’re old enough to eat solids.”

Dantee pulled the disposaplate closer and sniffed the cake. It was almost as if she’d understood Renna’s comment. She picked up the cake and put it to her lips then slowly began tilting her head back making drinking motions.

“Sorry sweetie, you can’t drink the cake. You need to bite it like I showed you, then when you get it in your mouth chew.” Renna demonstrated taking a bite and chewing.

Dantee sat back for a moment and contemplated the cake. She picked it up and nibbled the edge until a piece fell into her mouth. She began making chewing motions and finally figured out that teeth made great tools to reduce the material to mush she could swallow. About half way through the cake, she again held up the sweet drink cup to her mother.

Renna got a refill and placed it before the baby. Dantee picked it up and took several long drinks before returning to munching on the soft cake. When she’d finished the cake and taken another long drink, she pushed the containers back and laid her head down. She was asleep instantly.

Renna turned to Saigg. “Did you see what I just saw? I’ve never heard of a baby being weaned in one sitting.”

“She’s definitely something special. I’ll carry her to the couch. Wait until I tell you about the meeting.”

Chapter-19

A nurse in blue floral print scrubs wheeled Cindy into Beldon’s room shortly after Striker left.

She’s lost so much weight and looks gaunt with those dark circles under her eyes.
Bel noted through nearly closed eyes.

“Bel, you’re awake!” Cindy said.

“Cindy.” Beldon held out his hand to her.

Duane and Linda said their good-byes and left the young couple to their reunion.

Bel’s emotions were all over the map. Feelings of relief, sorrow, joy, dread, and finally contentment assaulted him when Cindy came into his arms for a prolonged embrace. They talked for hours, and Bel told her of his shock at finding out she was going to have a baby. Then the despair in finding out that their happiness, their future, was taken away by the brutality of a team of government agents. Their talks wandered from the destruction of their home to what amounted to the destruction of the US constitution and the Bill of Rights.

“Have you met Colonel Striker?” Beldon asked.

“A few times. He was the one who got us medical attention when Hooker and his team brought us here. I think Hooker wanted to do some serious interrogation of us before offering medical assistance, but Colonel Striker had ambulances called and sent us here. He tried to get the Homeland Security team charged for assaulting us and illegal search and seizure. Striker as much as told me Senator Breathsword stepped in and talked the President into burying everything,” Cindy told him.

“Senator Breathsword. Why would he care?”

“Duane didn’t tell you? Billy was one of the sources Hooker used to justify his raid. Danny Wilkins was the other one. If the DHS team would have been charged, then Billy and Danny would have been accessories to the crimes.”

“Are those two going to interfere with our lives forever? I thought once we graduated from high school we would be done with their bullying and reign of terror,” Beldon said.

“During Colonel Striker’s investigation, Billy was so proud of having helped DHS that he kept talking about how smart his family is. He told the entire room about how Director Breathsword had set up a front company and used it to embezzle funds from NRAO and hide them in an offshore account. The FBI arrested Director Breathsword along with the woman he hired to cash the checks and act as receptionist for the fake company. The story has been in the papers for days and Senator Breathsword is tap dancing like mad trying to distance himself,” Cindy said.

“When Colonel Striker was talking to me, Dad accused him of crapping on his oath as an officer and the Constitution in general. Striker got mad and let it slip that an alien spaceship is heading to Earth. He also said that if Homeland Security had gotten their way and sent us to Guantanamo Bay as terrorists, we would have been killed en route to keep us from talking to defense lawyers.”

“Do you think they will...kill us?” Cindy asked.

“Not right away, but eventually they will have to. With Breathsword’s prodding, Homeland Security crossed a line and declared themselves and the President above the law. They can’t go back and act as if it never happened if we’re still alive. Once they brought us here and involved the military in the detention of American citizens, they put Colonel Striker in an impossible situation. He and his men have violated the Posse Comitatus Act and have essentially become accessories after the fact for any illegal activities of DHS.”

“How do you know this stuff?” Cindy asked.

“When the military moved in and took over NRAO and essentially high jacked Mom and Dad’s contracts, I started doing research online to see if it was legal.”

“So what you’re telling me is that eventually some agency of the government or members of the US military will be ordered to eliminate us. Just because someone thinks we might disrupt the upcoming elections and cause waves for the President, Senator Breathsword and their party.”

“Unfortunately, they won’t be able to stop with just us. They will need to eliminate any friends or relatives who know what happened to us, too. For most of them, they will have to make it look like accidents or natural causes. They already have Sandy and her husband here, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find out your parents and sisters are being kidnapped and brought here.”

“Beldon, we have to get out of this place and contact the press. It’s the only thing that will stop this and save everyone.”

“I know, but right now we need to regain our strength and learn everything we can about installation security and ways to get off the site.”

#

“What’s happening, Airman?” Striker asked as he entered the security office.

“Beldon and Cindy are talking. She’s filling him in on what happened since the raid. They’ve had a long discussion about when they will be killed and the need to start planning their escape while they still can.”

“Smart kids. They grasped the big picture quicker than I thought they would,” Striker said.

“Are they right, sir? Will they and their families be eliminated so that Breathsword and his cronies can stay in office?”

“I’m sure Breathsword and his buddies at DHS will come to that conclusion at some point.”

“Sir, I’ve enjoyed working for you and I’ve learned a lot. But, I can’t go along with what’s happening here. I’ll have my request for transfer on your desk this afternoon. I joined the Air Force to protect my country and to see some parts of it I’d never have had the opportunity to see without joining the military. This whole situation is so far beyond anything I expected. Will I be ordered to kill innocent civilians, so a few politicians can stay in power? I don’t want any part of it. I want a family and kids of my own someday. I don’t want to worry that DHS has become a clone of Saddam Hussein’s secret police and will come drag us out of our beds to be killed just because we know what they did.”

“That makes it one hundred percent,” Striker said.

“One hundred percent of what, sir?”

“A hundred percent of the military personnel at this facility have requested a transfer because of what’s happening with the Dumas family. I’ll tell you the same as I told everyone else. Your request for transfer is denied. You have a job to do soldier, a big job that could affect the entire planet and life as we know it. Beldon and Cindy Dumas and the entire Dumas family have gotten a raw deal. I won’t even try to justify that or predict how it will end. Our responsibility is to track the incoming spaceship and determine its intentions. If those intensions are hostile, we need to figure out a way to protect the Earth and all of its inhabitants. You know we have already started preparing an armed response if we determine it to be necessary. Now we need to come up with a way to make that determination.”

“Why don’t we try talking to them?” asked the corporal.

“Why do you think they would know English or any other Earth language?”

“We have that first intercept. I’ve heard, through the grapevine, it was in English,” commented the airman.

“True. But none of the other intercepts have been. Everything is some kind of random encryption that we’ve been unable to crack. It’s as if they’re using an extremely long password encryption that changes every day or at least every time we make an intercept.”

“Beldon and Cindy developed that training program to teach English. Couldn’t we ask them to help us figure out how to communicate with the ship? They already know it’s coming.”

“How did they find out? If Duane told them, I’ll have his ass,” Striker said.

“You told Beldon and Mrs. Dumas, sir. When you were explaining the facts of life to Mr. Dumas, you said that on top of everything else an alien spaceship was coming to Earth. From the startled look on Mrs. Dumas’s face, I’d say that was the first she’d heard of it, but Beldon didn’t even blink.”

“You know, Airman, I think you might just have solved one of my problems. I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out something those kids could do to get them involved and get their minds off what happened to them. Maybe if I setup a research team and assign Beldon and Cindy to head it. The team’s assignment will be to establish communications with the alien ship.

#

“The two of you are looking a lot better. I hope this apartment will suit your needs. We didn’t really have the infrastructure to bring in more mobile homes, so I thought we’d refurbish some of the unused executive office space into apartments,” Colonel Striker told Beldon and Cindy.

Beldon looked at Striker skeptically. “Did your decision also have something to do with making it easier to control our activities and monitor our movements?”

“Of course it did. We are moving your parents and little sister into the next unit and your sister Sandy and her husband across the hall,” Striker told them.

“Bel thinks you or Homeland Security will kidnap my family, too,” Cindy said.

“They will have the apartment across from Duane and Linda,” Striker said as an indirect answer to her question.

“Why go to all this trouble and expense? We all know what the end result will have to be,” Beldon said.

“You seem pretty certain you have everything figured out,” Striker said as he showed them the bedroom and attached bath.

Cindy opened the door to the walk-in closet. “You were very generous with the closet space for a couple with only a single pair of hospital pajamas and slippers each.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve ordered several changes of clothing for each of you. I’ sure you’ve noticed the apartment is missing a kitchen. There’s only a small refrigerator. It was quicker to complete the remodel if we didn’t put kitchens in all the apartments. At the end of the hall is a small mess hall that’ll be staffed from six in the morning to ten at night. If you have favorite recipes or meals, let the cooks know, and they’ll try to accommodate you.”